Our new life!

Summer is winding down, so I have a little bit of time to update; unless Aspen decides to not cooperate.  We   were able to sell our car in June, so that was a blessing.  Our house is still up for sale. We have had a few people interested, but no one serious yet. We are keeping our fingers crossed.  Our basement is almost finished, so hopefully that will help.  It will be nice when we have our home built and we don't have to worry about moving.

 I am trying to think of all the things we did this summer.  We stayed busy even though we didn't really do anything big.  We went to a lot of events around the valley.  The last few months of pregnancy weren't comfortable, as was expected, so that limited what I wanted to do.

  I was so nervous about having the baby. I really wanted to do a VBAC, but didn't want to go through hours and hours of labor, only to have a c-section and months of healing.  On August 1st, I went to my doctor's appointment.  He had been running non-stress tests on Aspen to make sure she was doing ok, since at my ultra sound she had been measuring 3 weeks behind.  He wanted to make sure she could handle the stress of labor. She did great, no problems or concerns.  Well at my doctor appointment, I was dilated to a 3, so he decided to strip my membranes to hopefully speed up the process.  Since I pretty  much have the worst luck ever, I wasn't expecting anything to happen.  On Thursday morning I mowed our weeds, hoping to put myself into labor, since that's what had happened when I went into labor with Reese.  Later that night on  Thursday, I went out to dinner with my good friend Jenn.  I had started having contractions that were pretty intense, but they were never consistent or regular, and of course when I started timing them they either stopped, or quit coming as consistently. I joked that McDonald's would be my last meal before I went to the hospital, and it just so happened to be that way.  The next morning I woke up and had some contractions and bleeding and decided to go to the hospital. I called Jake and told him I was on my way to the hospital, but told him not to get too excited since I would probably be sent home.  The doctor came and checked me and I was dilated to a 5.  So at about 11 am they broke my water.  Jake's mom was the first to show up, and then my mom.  My contractions still weren't coming as strong as they wanted them too, so when Jake got to the hospital we walked the halls, and I still hadn't progressed, so they gave me pitocin, which did the trick.  I wasn't too uncomfortable even though they weren't a picnic.  I was checked and had only dilated to a 6, so they turned up the pitocin.  A few hours later, at around 3:30pm I decided that I wasn't tough enough and asked for some kind of medicine.  They gave me Fentanyll, which worked for like 30 minutes, but then it didn't do anything for me after that, and my contractions were seriously not letting up, and my back labor was horrible! After trying to tough it out, the nurse came in and turned down the pitocin, but that didn't help.  I guess the baby decided it was time to come.  I lasted as long as I could without an epidural, but caved when I felt the baby coming.  I was seriously so happy when it kicked in.  After that our Aspen Brielle was born at 4:34pm.  So it went really fast. I was dilated to a 10 by 4pm, so pretty glad it went the way I wanted it to without complications.
 Aspen has been such a good baby.  After I brought her home, I had to wake her up to feed her, which was totally opposite of Reese. Reese would wake up every 2 hours! It's been a nice change to have a baby who sleeps at night-well kind of.  Last night she didn't wake up once, however, she hates going to sleep.  I can start trying to put her to bed at 9, but she usually fights it until about 12.  She isn't fussy during the day at all, it's just from about 9 until she falls asleep. I don't know what to do, and she sleeps good other than that, so I can't really complain, but if you all have any suggestions or ideas let me know. I have tried putting her on a schedule, and that doesn't work. So let me know.

Aspen Brielle, August 3, 2012 6lbs 4oz, 19 inches long

What's going on

  I'm actually now 29 weeks, but apparently my camera didn't work, so I will have to take more.  This baby sure knows how to find my ribs-ouch!!! Reese wasn't in my ribs like this, oh well I don't have too much longer. We have just put our car and house up for sale, so hopefully they sell as fast as what we would like.  A lot of people have been wondering why we are selling.  We are trying to simplify life a little by getting out of debt and we also want to build a house that we plan on staying in.  Now that kids are actually coming, we want something that we won't grow out of.  We have found a few lots that we really like, but we aren't getting too excited until our house sells.  The market is really bad,  there are so many houses for sale.  So if anyone knows of anyone looking for a house send them our way.
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=475&ad=20632049&cat=279 
http://www.ksl.com/auto/listing/9747269

 I wish that we could go back in time and just know what is going to happen.  I don't think we would have bought the house if we knew that we would finally have children, but I guess we make choices so that we can learn from them.

  Reese has been singing a lot of songs lately.  She sings "up above the world so high" from Twinkle Twinkle.     She sang "round and round, all through the town" from Wheels on the Bus today.  She copies everything we say now, so we are always on our toes hoping we don't teach her anything bad.  

 I am so glad it feels like summer! I can't go for as long of walks as I would like since my bladder is constantly squished, but just being outside is amazing.  It's also pretty fun to take Reese to the park.  She loves everything now.  However after her little slide accident in Preston she is way more cautious, which is nice because she really doesn't have any fear at all.

 Sorry there isn't much to update, we are just trying to make everything fall into place with our house, car, finances, church so I have been pretty MIA lately or just busy.  I'm definitely feeling the last few weeks of freedom slip away, since I know I will be even more busy having a family addition soon.  Just trying to get what I can done.

Putting on makeup

Black eye from falling from slide :(

Pregnancy memory

5/11/2012

I wrote this next post to remind me of the joys of pregnancy.....warning lots of complaining...
 
26 weeks is definitely getting uncomfortable! Sleeping is a challenge, heart burn, a toddler squishing me and baby, crazy hormone changes... Apparently the brain forgets these things even just 21 months after your last pregnancy! However, I feel like my hormones are way out of wack this time, everything else is also a little bit worse than last time, but I only have 14 weeks or so left and then it will be a bit more challenging in other ways.  I guess we go from one challenge to another.
 Things have been more than tight with finances lately.  We are honestly probably the most limited we have ever been- and hope to be! The doctor bills are what is crazy! Right now we pay close to $300 a month on doctor bills, and for July and August we will have to come up with another $370 for health insurance.  We have just started paying tithing as well. In the scriptures it says to prove that God won't bless us if we pay our tithing-I do feel comfort in that , even though it is hard to let go and have faith.  We have had blessings already.  Jake has had 2 full weeks of work, a guy that Jake helped on the side of the road brought us food, some of our bills have been lowered.  We have shut off our tv and gotten an antenna, but found that we actually get more than what we were paying for! We will soon be cancelling internet as well.  I guess we still need to sacrifice to prove ourselves as well.  I keep wishfully thinking that Reese will all of a sudden get potty trained as part of our blessings.  I know it's a long shot, but I did say wishful thinking.
 We are going to hopefully be putting our house up for sale.  We want to build, and get some things paid off so that we aren't so tight.  So for now I would have to say that we are living on faith and continue to try to live worthy of all of our blessings we are so grateful for.

24 Weeks and Easter Post.

23 Weeks

24 Weeks

Time to start whipping out the maternity shirts....I've been able to wear some of my t-shirts so far. This pregnancy has flown by since after week 12! It's crazy that in less than 16 weeks we will have another child.  Reese loves to kiss her baby (my belly), she has also been taking care of her babies as well. She feeds them her milk from her sippy cup, and wants us to diaper them too.  She has started acting like a baby lately too. She wants us to pretend that she is a baby.  She has found a binky and has reverted back to using it, well when she has found it again.  Hopefully she won't be too jealous when her sister is here.

          Easter 2012. We went to the egg hunt in Preston. When we got there of course she wanted to get all the treats, but after the firetruck siren sounded she didn't know what to think, but she had fun and loved all of the treats she got!

 The picture on the left was taken right before she started freaking out once she took a good look at the easter bunny.  The picture on the right is what the bunny left at Grandma Brenda's house.

 

 Reese Picking buttercups-an easter tradition. 

Reese Decorating Eggs for the first time. Let's say that most of them were thrown into the cups.

Spring stuff

  So I am pretty much the least photogenic person I know! But here is a picture of me at 21 weeks.  I thought I would wear the same outfit as one of my other pics to compare them.  I'm not too much bigger, but I think this baby is sitting differently. We found out on March 20 that we are having a girl, and of course all of the previous names suddenly don't seem right. So for now it is going to be Aspen Brielle.  Jake didn't end up going to the ultrasound as promised, he ended up not working the day before so he couldn't miss work.  I was still pretty upset and of course emotional when I found out that morning that he wasn't going, because then I was going by myself.  I guess I have just always had a vision that something as exciting as that should be shared with at least someone. Oh well, I survived.

With the warmer weather here, me and Reese have been playing at the park a lot.  She loves it!!! She follows all of the big kids around and goes down all the slides by herself! I told her to go down the twisty slide and I wasn't sure how it would go, needless to say she crashed, but now she knows to slide on her tummy.

I found some home made recipes for finger paints that haven't worked out so well, but I guess she has had fun making a mess and painting, so it has been good to have something different to keep her entertained when we can't go outside.

Here is Reese's first easter eggs. She would pretty much drop or throw them in the dye.

For those of you that didn't know, I have been doing hair for 6 years now, and I finally have a salon in my house so if you need anything give me a call.  I recently started doing shellac nails and I love them!!! They last forever and the shine is amazing!  Here is what I plan on charging for different services.

Haircuts: (includes shampoo)

Women: $15

Men: $10

Kids: $5

Hair Color: (includes haircut)

1 allover color:  starts at $30

Weave/slices: starting at $45 for one color

For each additional color $5

Men Hair color: $15

Perm: starting at $35 for short hair, $45 for medium hair, long hair starting at $55

Spa Services

Deep Conditioning Treatment: $10

Facial: $20

Pedicure: $10

Manicure: $10

Shellac: $10

Eyebrow/facial waxing: $8 

Specials…

With any service $10 and up get a facial for $10, or a deep conditioning treatment for $5.

Refer 2 friends and receive a free haircut, free deep conditioning treatment or a facial for $10.

Get a facial and receive a deep conditioning treatment for just $5.

10 foil highlights, shampoo, haircut $45!

(one color, $5 for additional colors)

18 Weeks and Spring Fever!

I am officially 18 weeks today! We get to find out what we are having on Tuesday! I am way excited, Jake will actually get to be there this time! I really feel like we are having a boy, and apparently so does everyone else ha ha.  I'm good with either, and I know Jake really really really really really wants a boy too. He has this idea that he can teach a boy how to do wheelies on four wheelers and bikes, and that girls can't do that.  I think our little Reese can do anything, she is super active and already pretty athletic. We will show him. ;) When I was pregnant last time with Reese by this time we had pretty much decided on names for both a boy and a girl, at this point we really only have a name for a boy, Chance, and we also like the name Noah.  For girl names we can't decide on Tessa, Mindi, Journey and that's pretty much all that I can remember that we have agreed on.  With Chance we can't decide on a middle name, my dad has this idea that we should name him Chance Jacob, which isn't bad, we just aren't fans of naming our kids after ourselves.  So the middle name is still undecided, but I guess we have 22 weeks left to figure that out. 

I really wish that the weather would just warm up! Reese and I are going crazy staying inside all day, or maybe she is driving me crazy. She has a ton of energy and nowhere to put it. Sometimes we go to McDonald's or the mall's play place with friends so she can play, but it's just not the same. I took her outside the other day so she could ride her little four wheeler Santa brought her for Christmas and she loved it! When we came back in she kept grabbing our hands and taking us to the door so we could take her, but she was really mad when we didn't.  Today the high is supposed to be 63 degrees so hopefully the wind won't blow and we can go to a park and play.  

The other day we went to Uncle Dave and Aunt Steph's house to see all the animals.  We got to see 2 little pigs, sheep, ducks, and baby chicks! Reese loved it! She couldn't understand why she couldn't catch the sheep or the pigs.  She kept crouching down and patting her legs like she would call her dogs and they still didn't come, it was pretty funny! She has been learning all of the animal sounds and she can't quite understand what the pig says, so hopefully this video does it justice.  

Normal Life

So Jake was able to start working with his brothers doing masonry again  in December, which makes me and Reese super happy! He has been able to be home every night for this last month.  It's been really good to spend more than just a day or two or even a few hours a week together as a family. However, the times when he was driving and was only home for a few hours here and there really makes us not take this time together for granted.  

 I will admit though that it has been weird having to make dinner more often and try to have it ready by the time Jake and his brother gets home.  But I have been more motivated to cook and have good meals prepared. I thank pinterest.com for this! Seriously when I am in a cooking rut, I check out pinterest and can always find something new to try. Ok, ok maybe I actually check it every day for recipes, but I haven't tried anything from pinterest that I haven't liked yet.  

This is me at 16 weeks when I was pregnant with Reese...quite a difference.

 

I am now 15 weeks along! Time has gone by fast with this pregnancy, I guess the first 11 weeks were slow and really rough, but now I am past the morning sickness stage and getting more energy back. Thank goodness since I have our little one to chase around! We get to find out what we are having on Tuesday, March 20th! That will be here before we know it! I honestly will be happy with whatever we have, but with finances super tight it would be great to have another girl so we can just use what we already have.  

 At my last appointment, I was talking to the doctor about having a VBAC. I really feel that this would be beneficial for me.  I look back to when I had Reese and it was hard enough to heal and take care of myself and one tiny baby after a c-section, I can't imagine having to try to do that and take care of an extra person now.  I really like the idea of a faster healing process, but there are no guarantees so I need to be ok with whatever happens.  My doctor said that they could do an ultra sound later in my pregnancy to guess the weight of the baby, so that we can factor all of this in.  I still have time to decide. I have been praying about what would be best and I haven't received an answer yet, hopefully I get one before I'm 9 months pregnant for peace of mind.  I would just hate to go through a ton of labor again and end up having another c-section.  Anyone have any thoughts on this? 

It would be fun to see what everyone thinks I'm having so vote on the right hand bar on my page! Thanks :)