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. . .

And We're Walking!

This picture doesn't do the little dude justice, but he has officially started walking! The first official day, according to the mommy, was April 6, 2009, when he was 26 months old. Now, a month later, he is walking around everywhere, only falling occasionally, and loving his new found freedom. Walking seems to lead to climbing, bouncing, rolling, and in general being more wild, and Benson loves it!

You've come a long way, baby!

It's a . . .

I never posted our family picture from Christmas, and as I was cruising the picture files, I ran across this one from when Benson was 8 months old! My, how my little boy has grown! His current thing is singing the ABC's, the entire thing, with only a few prompts for N and T. I think he might have music in his bones, one way or the other. Anyway.


SO! We had our 28 week ultrasound yesterday, and this time around our baby's legs were nice and open, unlike the 20 week modest pose. AND, my four dreams were right! We are having a girl!!!!! Hurray! I spent about 5 hours yesterday looking through family history books, from Kunz cousins to Steel cousins, to Hill cousins, looking for names that we like, because now that we know its a girl, I'm not satisfied with any of the options, and i like names with meaning and history. I dreamed family history all night, and woke up and dove right back in. But you know, it's always good to learn about your roots.

1983

Gotta love the 80's!

Marc, Paul, David, John, Meg

Ode to Loreal Mascara

I love mascara. It has to be used, in my world, along with eye liner, namely MAC eyeshadow applied with an angled brush, but still, mascara is an absolutely essential part of my face. When I didn't have time to apply it, my first graders would say, "teacher, you look funny today," or "teacher, are you tired today?" My eyes are really deep set, so if I don't wear those two essential items, my eyes look lost.

As much as I love mascara, I have tried every brand out there, Estee Lauder, MAC, Clinique, Lancolm, Cover Girl, Mary Kay, you name it, but have always come back, in the end to LOREAL VOLUMINOUS mascara. This mascara always does for me what its name promises, it gives me more volume, which is what I need. Knowing all this, I was happy to discover that LOREAL has come out with a new version of what I love called VOLUMINOUS NATURALE. Oh my heck!!!!!! I thought there would never be anything better than the original formula, but I was wrong. This stuff goes on without clumping, just like they say it will. The brush has stiff bristles, but is completely flexible all at the same time, and it just works wonders! My eyelashes, which mostly just need darkening and volume, now also look longer and curlier. Seriously, this stuff is great. If you have ever had trouble finding a good mascara, go spend $5.34 at Walmart and pick up a tube of LOREAL VOLUMINOUS NATURALE! Seriously worth it!

Love!

Oh my heck! As always, my crazily talented sister-in-law Joslyn took these pictures of Benson, and I can barely stand it! It seems like a picture can capture the looks that we can never quite describe, and this is my sweet little boy who I love like crazy! (And he, apparently, loves to swing!) Thanks, Jos!

Gratitude II

We took some pictures on Thanksgiving, and here a few of them. I am truly thankful for my little family. My favorite thing in the world is spending time with them. And adding our extended family on either side just adds to the fun! It's nice to know that at the end of a long day, you can be together with your family, and feel like you belong there. I love my family!

The three and a half of us

Benson enjoying his Thanksgiving dinner. . . after a long nap!

Our little boy who looks so grown up!

Prego Mego

It's official. I am 7 weeks pregnant! Hurray!

First sign that I was "expecting" before the "surest" sign (if you know what I mean):

Besides being a bit tired in the afternoon, and having to get up a lot at night for a bathroom run, I was pretty sure something crazy was going on inside of me when, about three weeks ago, I was tending my nephews and nieces and I was walking them to school with Phil on a day when Cosmo the Cougar was going to be a "Special Guest" crossing guard in the morning. When we got there, Cosmo had not shown up yet, and all the kids were waiting, and the excitement in the air was nearly tangible, about ready to burst. Phil and I stayed to see what would happen. WELL, all of a sudden Cosmo the Cougar jumped out of a van, ran towards the kids, and the crowd went seriously wild. Screaming, cheering, jumping, you name it. That was when I completely lost it. I started sobbing, and saying to Phil, "Oh honey, isn't this so exciting? These kids are so excited to see Cosmo, and they are so happy, and isn't it just wonderful!?! He has made their day! What a wonderful experience!" Etc. Etc. Phil was looking at me strangely, and I stopped and thought (as a true UTE fan would) "Oh my. I must be pregnant."

Hair-Do

I would like a little girl next so I can do what this mom does here.
Seriously. Can't Wait!

Blog Envy

So, I have a new theory about blogging. . .maybe not too profound, but I seriously believe it. I always look at other people's pictures and think to myself, "wow, they did something so cool," or "they have such a cute living room," or "their life seems so exciting." So then I get a comment on my blog from a friend who basically says that something we did seems really cool, and all the while I am thinking, "oh, but honey, it really wasn't all that! It's just what we were doing."

My theory is that maybe blogs are like the infamous "Christmas letters," a.k.a "Brag Letters." You pretty much write all the cool stuff you do, because it is the most interesting, and in the meantime you don't mention that you really need to mop your floor, or do the dishes, or that you haven't washed your car in like a year, or anything that is less than glamorous. I completley don't believe in Brag Letters, but I love the good old blog. So, to help the envy come to an end, let's all (or maybe just me, if I'm the only that has ever experienced this) remember that the person who took a really cool trip to some exotic location also has dirty clothes at home, waiting for them to wash and that their babies smear oatmeal from breakfast in their hair, too. And really, that's what makes life exciting!

End of Summer

This has been the summer of exercise, gardening, dry-walling, mudding and trips. I went to Youth Conference and all of Young Women girl's camp, Phil went up to King's Peak with some friends and climbed the whole thing in like 14 hours (a time he is determined to beat this weekend), and I flew to SanDiego with some very fun friends for just a day of lying on the beach and eating mexican food! FUN!!!

We ran a lot of races (okay, four) from May to September (Bryce Canyon was one of them; definitely a favorite) and we have only two coats of mud to go before we paint our upstairs and get carpet! Wahoo! The picture above was taken at the Greek Festival 5K/10K race that we ran a week ago, where Benson was a real trooper, although his Mommy had to take a break in the middle of the race at a Chevron to use the restroom. Oops! Daddy had pushed him in the last race, so I did this one. The double stroller adds a ton of weight, but it is awesome to be able to run with the whole fam, whether there are babies or not. (Don't make fun of the double. When baby #2 arrives, it will have been worth pushing around an empty seat for 2 years! Seriously!)

I planted my very first garden this year. Everything died, except the tomatoes, and up until this weekend I thought my peppers had died, but low and behold, there actually are like three baby green peppers growing! Who would have guessed. A good friend helped me learn how to grow from the plant above, to the jars below! What a satisfying event to eat your own produce!

Although he looks a bit sly here, onesie boy not only learned how to crawl this summer, he also has learned to pull himself up to standing and cruise around on furniture, or even push chairs. He is also a big fan of stairs, where he has learned to go both up and down. His O.T. came two weeks ago to do his 18 month review, and he is at age level for all areas of development (fine motor, social/emotional, language, etc.) except for gross motor, where he came in at a roaring 11 months developmental age. That, I tell you, is amazing! He has progressed so much from six months, and we are so grateful. As our Occupational Therapist says, when he walks into Kindergarten, no one will know the difference!

Crawling!

This was taken at the end of July. Benson opens up our lovely drawers, and reaches in and grabs whatever he can find. In this case it was a half-used bag of pasta. . .who knew it would be so much fun to play with!

Hello Camera!

Crawling! (He started in June at 16 months! Way to go buddy!)

Summer

Summer Top Ten:

When i wasn't blogging (oh, that was never!) I was:

10. staying cool-ish in the house
9. helping little boy learn to crawl!
8. cooking healthy food/ having family visit
7. running early in the morning
6. eating treats after the healthy food
5. painting walls/ helping family move
4. conferencing and camping with the young women
3. auditioning for American Idol
2. cleaning, dishes-doing, gardening, weeding etc.
1. Enjoying summer

Wow! We really needed an update. A meager attempt, one way or the other!