Santa! I not cry...

Jackson has been very interested in Santa Claus this year - which kind of surprised me.  He's only two, so I figured he would be pretty freaked out by him.  My mom has the pictures of my kids with Santa from the past couple of years up on her fridge.  The last few times we were at her house, Jackson has enjoyed pulling a chair over to the fridge so he can climb up and look at the pictures.  He always points out this picture from when Adam was 3 years old, and says "Adam crying - I not cry". 

So, I thought maybe seeing Santa for Jackson wouldn't be quite as traumatic.  We braved the mall on the afternoon of black Friday, like we've done for the past 5 years.  The mall was more crowded this year, but once we made it to Santa, there was no line.  There was a little girl sitting on Santa's lap, so we had to wait for a few minutes.  Jackson stood there smiling and waving at Santa, and acting very excited about getting to see him.  Then the little girl left...  We tried to get Jackson to sit on Santa's lap, but he wouldn't go anywhere near him.  As soon as we started walking towards him, he freaked out and started crying!  Adam went and talked to Santa, and told him about school, and that he wanted a Beyblade Arena for Christmas.  Still, Jackson stood there and cried!  We decided to get everyone else ready for the picture, so I handed one-week old Kate to Santa, and Adam sat on his knee, but what to do with Jackson?  He finally calmed down and stopped crying, but he still didn't want to get near the guy in the red suit.  I'm not sure how we did it (good thing Grandma AND aunt Tiffy were with me this year), but we finally coaxed him to stand next to Santa's knee, near Adam.  The picture takers were so nice, and they took a whole bunch of pictures (another benefit of going the day after Thanksgiving when no one else is there).  We did get a smile out of Jackson, and a weird sort of smile out of Adam (this is his normal smile for pictures lately - head tilted up and clenched teeth). 

Here is the best picture we could get... 

Now, when Jackson looks at the pictures, he still talks about the picture of Adam crying, and then he says "I cry too."  At least you can't tell from the picture.  Maybe he'll do better next year... 

Thanksgiving

Adam had two days of school during the week of Thanksgiving.  On Tuesday, his class had a "Heritage Potluck".  They had been learning about families and their heritage during the month of November, so to cap it all off, each child got to invite their parents to come have lunch at the school.  Each family was to bring a food item to share from the country of their heritage.  Needless to say, with a 4 day old baby, I wasn't being too creative, so Scott and I decided to bring Fish and Chips from England, because we both thought that we had relatives from England.  It was nice that my sister was here.  We left Kate with Tiff for an hour and brought Jackson with us.  It was so fun to see Adam in the classroom.  The kids made these darling turkey hats, and sang a couple of songs.  Scott video taped the songs, but I haven't been able to get them to upload to the blog.  I'll keep trying.  Here's a picture of Adam in his hat singing with his class.

For Thanksgiving, we went to my parents house again this year.  We, of course, went sporting our Dallas Cowboys gear!  Here we are (we forgot the camera, so the pics are all from my iPhone, some are a little blurry)

I made sure Kate was well prepared for Thanksgiving with a cute pink Cowboys onsies, and even some hair bows that say Dallas Cowboys.  Her dad was impressed!

We enjoyed spending time with family, and watching some football.  I love this picture of Jackson and Scott bonding. 

I have so much to be greatful for this year!  Happy Thankgiving everyone!

Birth Story

If you read the blog post I made back on November 16th, you'll know that I had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little girl.  I'm not sure what it was about this pregnancy, but by the time I was 6 or 7 months along, I was ready to be done.  It was much more difficult than either of the pregnancies with my boys.  Scott's says it's a mother-daughter thing.  Who knows.  Regardless, I was ready to be done long before my due date.  But, November 15th came and went, with no baby.  I was scheduled for induction on November 23rd, and then it got moved up to November 21st.  I went to see the acupuncturist twice - on Tuesday and Thursday.  At my appointment on Thursday, she said she thought it would be soon - but if I didn't go into labor, to call her on Saturday and she would do a stronger treatment.  I was ready to do anything! 

Friday, Scott stayed home from work.  He, Jackson and I ran several errands, did lots of walking around the mall, and basically kept ourselves busy.  I was noticing that Kate wasn't moving around as much as she had the previous couple of days, and after laying down for a nap was feeling a little concerned.  A nurse from the Maternity ward at the hospital called to do a pre-induction interview and so I asked her advise once we finished with her questions.  She suggested I call my doctors office, which I did.  It was close to 4:00, so they couldn't get me in for a non-stress test, but they called the hospital and told me to head in for the test.  I went upstairs and while I was getting some clothes out of the dresser I started to notice that I was leaking fluid - a lot of fluid so I ran to the bathroom and realized that my water had broken.  Scott and I quickly packed some clothes for the boys so we could drop them off at Grandma and Grandpa's and headed for Kirkland.  By the time we dropped the boys off and got to the hospital, I was wet down to my knees.  Everytime I moved I would leak more fluid.  It was quite uncomfortable! 

We checked in at the maternity desk, and they called the triage nurse, who took one look at me and called for a room.  She said there was no reason for me to go to triage - it was pretty obvious that my water was broken!  So, we headed back to a room to get settled. 

By the time they had us settled in our room, it was about 6:30 or so.  My water had broken around 4:15.  By this point, I hadn't started having any contractions or anything, so the doctor suggested they start some pitocen to get my labor started.  So, they hooked me up and started a slow pitocen drip, and nothing happened.  They increased the pitocen every 15 minutes or so - Scott and I did laps around the hospital, but nothing happened until about 8:30 when I started feeling some cramping.  They increased the pitocen again, and soon I was having stronger and stronger contractions.  Scott and I continued doing laps and haeaded back to our room around 9:45.  They hadn't check to see how dialated I was before this point because of the risk of infection since my water had broken on it's own.  I was feeling like things were progressing, so the nurse checked and I was between 7 and 8 cm.  Everything happened kind of fast from that point.  My contractions quickly got stronger and stronger.  The nurse checked again about 10:00 and I was almost 10 cm, so she called the doctor.  By 10:15, I was feeling ready to push.  Scott had mentioned to the nurse that my previous labors had gone very quickly, but I don't think she was too concerned about that.  The doctor came in and  I heard him tell the nurse to get everything ready, and we would try some practice pushes.  My thought was that I didn't need any practice.  Once he gave me the go ahead to push, I pushed and Kate was born.  Scott said that the doctor only had one glove on.  No one was quite ready - except for me and Kate.  She was born at 10:23 pm

Here is one of the first pictures of our little girl.  The minute I looked at her, I thought - she looks just like Jackson did!  It was really amazing!

 Being weighed!

 Official birth weight

 With mom and dad!

First visitor - Grandma!

First bath

 The next day, Grandma brought.   Adam and Jackons to visit

 Aunt Tiffy's plane landed Saturday morning, and she came right from the airport to visit Kate and see the boys. 

 Cousin Robyn even held her for a few minutes.

 It was an eventful couple of days, but we were ready to head home from the hospital by Saturday evening.  They checked us out and we headed for home - so greatful to be bringing home a healthy little girl. 

We are so blessed! 



Introducing...

Katherine Mae Wallis

Kate finally decided to join our family on Friday, November 18th.  She was born at 10:23 pm.  She is named for her Grandmothers - Katherine for my mom and Mae for Scott's mom.  We will call her Kate.  We are so happy to welcome her to our family!

Waiting...

So, yesterday was officially the due date for the girly in my tummy.  We are still (not so) patiently waiting for her to arrive.  I tried to capture a picture of my now 40 weeks and 1 day pregnant belly (although most people still don't think I look pregnant enough to be 40 weeks - I promise, it's really true!)

I went to the doctor yesterday morning.  Heartbeat is good, blood pressure is good, I measured right at 40 weeks, and I'm still 3cm dilated - like I have been for the past 4 weeks!  The doctor stripped my membranes to see if that could help things along, and then I had an acupuncture appointment last night.  And now, we are still waiting...  I have an appointment to be induced on November 23rd.  Anyone want to place bets on whether or not she'll come on her own before then?  We are all ready - anytime now!!

Pink...

There hasn't been a lot of pink stuff around our house until recently.  It's been kind of fun to go through baby clothes and blankets that are girly!  A few weeks back, my mom gave me a bunch of stuff that she had saved from when I was a baby - a couple of dressed, two blankets and the dress that I was blessed in (I'm excited to share that on here in a little bit)

This is one of the blankets that she passed on to me.  I love the pink and orange and blue animals.

 Adam wanted to help hold the blanket up too...

 This blanket was sent to baby girl by my Grandma Couch.  Isn't it beautiful!! 

 She has made a blanket for each of her grandchildren as they've gotten married or moved out of their parents home, and then for each of her great grandchildren as they've been born.  And let me tell ya - this is no small feat.  My mom is one of 8 kids.  I am one of 37 grandchildren, and my best guess at great grandchildren would be at least 55.   

Here's a close up of the HAND STITCHING that she did...

"Brush your teeth"

Daddy makes reading bedtime stories so much fun for his boys!!  Jackson picked out the book "How I Became a Pirate" the other night to read, and they had so much fun!  He likes to tell the pirates to brush their teeth!  It took me awhile to get the video camera working so I missed the best parts when he was really yelling it - but you kind of get the idea from this little video.  Maybe this will motivate him to let us help him brush his own teeth....