Our Newest Addition

We added a new member to our family right before Christmas. December 7 was the day little Riley decided to join our family. I had been scheduled to be induced because I was overdue and my fluids were getting low. I had never had to be induced before and I didn't want to be. I prayed and prayed that I would go into labor on my own. Dec. 7 came and no labor, so we made the early morning trek to the hospital for my schedule induction. Thankfully my parents had arrived the night before so they were able to stay with Callie and Josh. When we got to the hospital the nurse hooked me up to the monitors to start getting all my vitals. Low and behold, I started having contractions! The doc came up to see me and decided not to do anything and to see if I would just progress on my own. Jamey and I took many laps around the floor. We were in the company of a few other women who were also walking laps to progress their labor! It was pretty funny. We would all just smile at each other as we passed. Thankfully my contractions never got really strong until a little after one o'clock. My platelets were super low, so I wasn't going to be able to get an epidural. Shortly after 2, little Riley came into this world. After thinking we would never have another baby, it was such a joy to have a little one again. Be warned, there are a lot of pics in this post. What can I say, I'm a proud mom!

A few days before Riley was born.

Just hanging out.

As soon as she was born the nurse plopped her up on my chest. This is the first time that has happened instead of them just taking the baby to do whatever it is they do. She was so tiny, and so gray! She actually had the umbilical cord wrapped extremely tight around her neck. The doc had to do some quick work to cut it off before she was all the way out. It took her awhile to even get a finger under the cord to be able to cut it. And I swear it was 100 degrees in there! My awesome nurse kept a cool washcloth on my forehead to help cool me off.

Not very happy about things at this moment. She liked it better where she came from! She wasn't crying really loud, so they ended up having to take her to the NICU for a bit, but she started doing just fine as soon as they got there. They kept her to do all her vitals and her bath. Jamey was there taking pics the whole time.

Getting to hold her one more time before going to the NICU.

Such a tiny foot compared to daddy's finger.

Not at all happy about this whole situation. And why isn't anyone cleaning me up!

Breaking my heart.

Finally getting a bath.

All clean.

Warm and snug.

Happy to have my baby girl.

A proud grandma (and big sister and brother!). I'm so glad my parents were able to be there.

Grandpa getting his turn to hold her.

Our new family.

Getting dressed to go home. Callie thinks she now has a live baby doll to play with. She won't hardly leave Riley alone. She's such a little mom.

This just makes me laugh. She's so little!

Again she isn't happy with her situation!

Finally home and all snug in bed.

North Pole Breakfast

I am having to play catch-up because I was having issues with uploading pics here. So let me back up to right after Thanksgiving.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is when we decorate for Christmas. This year I decided to jump on the "Elf on the Shelf" bandwagon because I knew the kids would have a blast with it. We started the day off with a North Pole Breakfast, which was all set up for when the kids woke up. They loved it. They even had a present to open!

The table set-up

Rudolph Donuts

So excited!

Daddy introducing them to their elf, whom they named Rocky.

Soy milk is always better if you drink it through a fun straw!

The favorite item on the menu!

After breakfast we got cleaned up and headed up to a tree farm that was about an hour north of us. Jamey and I had both grown up cutting our own trees for Christmas and we haven't been able to do that with our kids because of where we were living. When we moved to Colorado I knew there had to be a place to cut your own tree, so I looked online and found a few. We decided to try out this one, but we will try a different one next year because there was such a slim selection. Here are a few pics from the farm.

When we got home it was time to pull out all the decorations. The kiddos enjoyed helping me decorate the tree, though I secretly moved a few they had hung so the tree wouldn't be too loaded around the bottom front!

All lit up at night and so pretty!

Oobleck

I have been wanting to make Oobleck for quite awhile, but I was always waiting until we could read the book, "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" by Dr. Seuss. I decided to go ahead and make some on Sunday because the kids were getting stir crazy. They have been doing so good the last few weeks considering most of their stuff is still in boxes and they don't really have a routine yet. Our future "classroom" still looks like this:

Quite frankly, it is driving me nuts! I am a very organized person by nature and I can't stand the fact that our lives really don't have any organization yet. Callie and Josh are now sharing a room, so Jamey's cousin gave us a bunk bed. We have to paint it white, so it is in the garage until we have time to refinish it. Until then, we don't have anywhere to put their toys, so everything remains packed up except for the boxes the kids have managed to unpack all over the floor. I am very glad that we have a designated space for a classroom though, and I have high hopes for the future of this room.

We do have a sandbox, which I'm not super crazy about (I hate how sand gets everywhere, in every crevice, and I don't want it in my house), but it has given the kids something to do:

Josh's latest fashion statement, even at Wal-Mart!

So today I pulled out the old cornstarch and water to make up this fun mixture to get the kids off my back! :) I am glad I did, because it kept them busy for almost 2 hours! For those that don't know what Oobleck is, it is made by mixing one part water with 2 parts cornstarch. The mixture is almost solid like if you just hit it or bounce your fingers on it, but then if you just place your finger on top, it will slowly sink in. You can pick it up and mold it, but as soon as you stop, it'll seep through your fingers. It is really quite cool. Here are a few pics of the kids playing with it:

Mixing it together

It started to get too hard to mix with the spoon, so in went the hands.

Watching it seep through her fingers

An hour or so later, this is what the porch looked like.

Josh wanted the "masher" and he picked a tomato from the garden and squished it up in his bowl.

Even though we are only renting our house, which is a new experience for us, we are blessed to have awesome landlords who don't mind if we paint and are also cool with our dogs. We have an awesome, though small, backyard with a great garden that we inherited. Here is Kona's happy place:

The weather has been so great here, and we often leave our back door open. I love the fact that the kids can go in and out in their bare feet and not track dirt in (unless they've been in the sandbox). In our old house, there was so much dust and mud that they often never played in the backyard. So overall, we are loving Colorado!