Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 has now come and gone. It was such a special Christmas for so many reasons. Our Phoebe was with us this year and it was so nice having her there to celebrate with us. Zoe mostly understands who Santa is and how he brings special presents to the nice girls and boys.

We went to our Ward Christmas party and Zoe was really excited to see Santa and tell him that she wanted paint for Christmas. We had explained that she didn't want to be on the naughty list so she had to be a nice girl. When it was time to put her coat on and leave the party she starting fussing and being naughty, saying she didn't want to leave. I told her that she either had to put her coat on or go tell Santa that she was being naughty and to put her on the naughty list. The little rascal turned away from me and started walking toward Santa to tell him to put her on the naughty list. I finally convinced her to be nice and put her coat on. Silly girl!

Christmas Eve we packed up all of our gifts and took everything to Grandma Pam and Grandpa Larry's house to spend the night. We had a tasty Chinese food supper and came home to open our Christmas jammies. Zoe got Dora the Explorer jammies and she was thrilled!! I got Cory a Nightshirt and it was so much fun!!! It was so goofy but so awesome! We had an eventful night because we tried to put Zoe, Pammy, and Cora all in the same room. Zoe and Cora just wanted to play and be silly so finally Heather took Cora into their room. Zoe woke up about 1 am and wasn't feeling very good. So Cory stayed up with her and took care of her all night. He said his nightshirt was like an awesome snuggie..he just had to pull his legs up into it and he was warm and cozy on the couch all night.

Christmas morning we were all awakened by Pammy yelling "A PILLOW PET!!! I got a PILLOW PET!!" I was surprised that Heather and Ryan went down before waking me up. So I got up out of bed to check and it turns out that Pammy had gotten scared during the night and wandered down to Grandma and Grandpas room. Grandma tried to entertain her by watching tv in the front room, but Zoe and Cory were snoozing there after a tough night. So she took Pammy back to her room and read stories. But Pammy eventually wandered into the living room and saw all the Santa glory. It was a fun way to wake up.
Phoebe is wondering why she isn't snoozing or nursing. Christmas is so confusing when you are so little.


Zoe loved her Christmas!! She got everything a little almost 3 year old dreams of! The very best gift this year would have to be her princess dress-ups. She is a dress-up lover and now has her very own dresses to love and cherish. It was an amazing Christmas and we have been so very blessed in every aspect of our lives.
This year we had 3 Dogs with us to celebrate Christmas! Heather's family got Ginger the cute little Beagle from Santa.


Loving on my ladies!

October fun!

October is a favorite month of mine..and now even more so because it's little Phoebe's birth month. I love the fall weather, the leaves changing colors, Halloween, Cornbelly's, the Witches at Gardener Village, and pumpkin desserts! What could be better?

We went to Cornbelly's which is seriously one of my favorite things to do during the fall. It's at Thanksgiving Point and it is a load of fun for kids! We took little Phoebe out to play even though I am afraid of germs. I figured if we were outside the germs couldn't be too bad..and it was a nice evening for some fun. Zoe loved it this year! She got to dress up like a princess and play with the Pumpkin Princess, bounce on the crazy big bouncy pillows, go on a corn maze hay ride, play on a giant slide thingy, and much more. It was so much fun!!
Halloween this year was so great! Zoe dressed up as Raggedy Anne and she looked so cute. Whenever anyone would ask her what her name was she would say "Raggedy Anne"! Hilarious..and I didn't even prompt her to say that. She loves playing pretend. Phoebe dressed up in a little pumpkin suit. Where she was so little this year not many costumes are made to fit her so she didn't dress up too much. We went to our Ward Trunk-or-treat which ended up inside due to inclement weather. We had practiced saying "trick-or-treat" but when the time came to say it Zoe would say "candy please" it was funny! So much fun this year. Hopefully next year we will actually get to go door to door and have some real fun.

Phoebe!!

The new addition to our family has finally arrived and we couldn't be any happier! Phoebe was born at 3:05 pm on 10/10/10! I had planned her arrival for that date and was thrilled that all my planning worked out in the end!

The birth was so different than when Zoe was born. I think when Zoe was born there was so much unknown and it was shocking. We went in on the 9th at 10 pm to start my induction. They just started me on a really low dose of pitocin and had me go through the night and just let the drug do it's job. The nurse who placed my IV did an awesome job..thinking back to Zoe's birth the IV was one of the worst parts for me. It made me feel sick and they had to do it a couple times to get the IV in right.I didn't sleep a wink the whole night..they had a heart rate monitor on my belly to track the baby's heart. They also had a blood pressure cuff on my arm that went off every hour. The one time I almost fell asleep the dang cuff went off and woke me up.
At about 5 am I just gave up and Cory and I watched "6 Days 7 Nights" on the VCR in the room. They didn't have a DVD player and that bummed me out because I had packed some of my favorite movies. Luckily they had a library of Tapes to choose from and they had a few interesting choices. They actually had some horror movies and some really heavy murder type movies. I was surprised because the last thing I want to watch while in labor is a horror!!


About this time they decided to up the pitocin to start my labor really going.Around 10:00 am a Doctor came in to break my water and I was only dilated to a 2. She had a hard time breaking the water and had to come back a little later to try again. Once my water broke things started to speed up a little. Around Noon I was feeling strong contractions and I was very uncomfortable sitting in the bed so I asked if I could walk around. They let me walk around with portable heart rate and contraction monitors. With each contraction I had to stop walking because it was best for me to concentrate on them than try to walk through them. I walked around for about an hour and then decided to go back to my room.

They checked me again and I was dilated to a 5. I decided at that point to get the epidural.The anesthesiologist gave me the epidural and at first it didn't take very well. The nurses told me to wait 20 min and if it still wasn't working they could give me a stronger dose of meds. Well it still wasn't working and I was feeling some STRONG contractions. So the anesthesiologist came back and gave me more meds. This time the meds worked amazingly, I could hardly feel a thing! They checked me again and I was dilated to a 10 so they called my Doctor to come deliver the baby.
While I was waiting I was feeling so tired..no sleep the night before plus labor had me tuckered. With the epidural I was finally comfortable and I almost fell asleep! I couldn't believe that at the height of labor I was feeling good enough to take a nap!! The Doctor got there and he had me start pushing. I guess they thought it would take a while for me to deliver the baby but at one point while I was pushing they told me to stop. The Doctor and his helper had to get their gear on so they could deliver the baby. When they were ready I started pushing again and had the baby out in two contractions! I'm an excellent pusher I guess.
Phoebe was brought to my chest so we could have some skin to skin time. She scored a 9 on the APGAR and was doing really well. Her blood sugar was a little low but with nursing it came back up and it wasn't a problem. It's so amazing experiencing child birth!
Phoebe is now a week old and she is doing excellent! She is sleeping and nursing like a champ. Zoe is adjusting really well to having a new sister. The first couple of days she would act out a little and get upset quickly but she has been nothing but sweet towards her baby sister. She just wants to kiss and rub Phoebe. We are so pleased that she has joined our family and we can't wait to watch her grow up!

Long overdue update :)

It has been far too long since I last blogged! Zoe is getting so big and she is so much fun! We have been potty training and so far it is going really well. Last night she mentioned to Cory that she had to go poop. I thought she was with him but it turns out that she was in the backyard pooping on the grass. She came back in and had poop on her hands and legs and told me that she had pooped on the grass. Gross!! Hopefully this will be the only grass situation we have!

Zoe is talking really well and she loves to read stories and sing songs. Almost every day she takes all of her stories from one room to another so she can read them. They usually get shuffled up on my bed and then get lugged downstairs to the couch and finally back to Zoe's room at bedtime. It makes me laugh to see her going back and forth moving all her stories. We are talking over 30 stories that are moved around on a daily basis. She likes to read them to her baby doll while sitting on her dolly's bed.

If you don't already know I am pregnant with my second child. The baby is due 10/14/10 but I've asked my Doctor to induce me on 10/10/10 because it would make a fun birth date. My Doctor agreed to induce me where it is so close to my due date. So unless I have the baby early I will be welcoming daughter #2 on October 10th. I am excited and nervous to welcome new baby. Hopefully things will go as smoothly as having a new baby can go. All name suggestions are welcome!

We just got back from a family reunion at Hat Creek Hereford Ranch in Hat Creek California. We had a really nice time and got to relax a lot. Everyone was camping but I knew I couldn't do it seeing as I am 7 months pregnant. Luckily Cory's brother and his family live pretty close to the campground and they were kind enough to let us sleep at their home while they camped. I cannot describe how wonderful it was to go to their home each night and have a cozy bed to sleep in, toilets that don't require a trek, and nice clean showers.

Grandma and Grandpa have a Golf Cart that we got to ride around a little. Zoe called it Grandpa's "digger" and we would go on a daily (at least) drive to find critters. There were lots of squirrels and birds in the campground and cows near the entrance. We really enjoyed our critter trips!!

Around the camp there was a lot of dirt/sand ...and luckily Grandma thought ahead to bring shovels and buckets for the kids to play with. Zoe loved playing in the dirt and called it "making sandcastles" and never wanted to stop playing. I have never seen my child dirtier than she was making sandcastles each day. But she was having so much fun so I didn't mind her dirtiness.One night we rented out the local movie theater and watched "Despicable Me" which was so much fun! This was the first movie Zoe has seen in the theater and she did surprisingly well. She loved the movie and was good through the whole thing. We loved visiting with Cory's family and relaxing for a whole week. Below are some pictures of our fun trip!


Zoe loving on the Digger!
Swinging with cousin Ashley
Our family
Swinging is so fun!
Sprinklers!!!

Thankfully this is the only bear we saw!
Super wet and happy!

Thank you Easter Bunny!

We hope everyone had a really nice Easter. We had a really great day! Zoe loved Easter and had so much fun playing with her Easter Basket.
The Easter Bunny brought Zoe a new swim suit with a rash guard top and flip flops for our upcoming trip to Hawaii. She got a fun pink ball that hopefully the dog won't be able to ruin. It's a hard plastic ball that bounces pretty good. The dog has killed all other balls this poor child has had. She got some candies, a new coloring book, and some markers.
Zoe had an Easter Egg hunt in our living room with her cousins Cora and Pamela. Zoe didn't get it at first so Pamela got off to a good start. But then Zoe realized that the eggs were fun to get. Then she realized that the eggs had treats in them!! She had so much fun.
After the Easter adventures we had a really tasty brunch at my sisters house. We had such a fun day and were happy to get to spend it with my sister and her family. Although we were a little jealous that we had to miss out on the fun Petersen festivities. We hope you all had a fantastic holiday!

Happy #2 Zoe!!

Zoe is 2!! I can't believe my baby is such a big girl! I don't even feel like I can call her the baby anymore. I should start calling her my big girl. We celebrated her Birthday yesterday and it was so much fun! We went to a really great indoor swimming pool at Murray Park. The pool has a pretty big water slide that they let take little kids down with you. She just loved the slide and her expression is the best when you watch her coming to the bottom. So much fun! The pool also has a lazy river and a little kiddie playground that has a slide and lots of water squirting everywhere. It was such a great way to celebrate!

After the pool we came back home for gifts and cake and ice cream. Zoe got some serious loot!! a Buckin' bronco, baby doll, stroller for baby doll, dog in a bag, crochet wiener dog, crochet Lucius look-a-like dog, and much much more!! We are so thankful to have such fun friends and want to thank everyone for coming!

I bought Zoe a book about Birthdays and in the book is a cake with candles on it. So we always pretend to blow out the candles when we get to that page. She loves to do it for pretend..but when I walked towards her with a cupcake with 2 lit candles she was terrified! Pammy and I blew the candles out and Zoe was much happier. She had watched me decorate the cupcakes and the whole time she was saying "Zoe cupcake". So she was pretty thrilled to finally get to eat a cupcake. I made the cupcakes so fun!! They were rainbow and let me just say..they tasted delicious!!

Happy Birthday Zoe!