Playing Catch Up!!!

Thank goodness a picture says 1000 words because I'm just going to update y'all of our last month or so with a bunch of 'em :).

This was a primary activity at which I did the face painting :). Lexi chose a purple flying unicorn, and Micaela a floating rainbow.

Do you like Lexis bangs? She cut them herself.

Micaela doing some funny relay.

Alexis sporting her tap costume and all the sass that goes with it :).

We participated in the neighborhood garage sale this year and Steve helped the girls bust out an orange juice stand as well.

Lexi with best school friends Madison and Halle at their school olympics.

Steve volunteered me to paint these visors for Lexi's entire kindergarten class. Okay it wasn't so bad :). They were the "Zoom Team"! They won at tug of war against the other kindergarten class -"The Class Clowns".

It eventually got hot enough that the kids were dunking their heads in buckets of water.

Lexi on her last day of kindergarten -technically two days early because we had flights to California the next morning :).

Skylar's first trip to the beach. We went to Swami's to enjoy the tide pools, but the tide was a bit too high for much.

Sky isn't a fan of the water just yet.

We enjoyed a great park with Grandma and Auntie Kris :).

Then, it was a day of fun at Legoland. Thanks Uncle Lance!

Of course, we made good use of the pool:).

I'm a super sucker for swimsuits with strawberries!

It starts! My sister Deb and I used to do stuff like this to our younger brother Mark.

You're in for it now Sky -your sisters have discovered how fun it is!

So I finally busted out the paint for the girls and they thoroughly enjoyed creating their works of art that now hang by the fridge.

At the same time Sky had a blast with his play mat from Grandma & Grandpa.

Happy Father's Day x 3 Steve!

We received some Bees tickets from a neighbor and made the mistake of inviting Matt & Annie who were in town (just kidding guys) unaware of the pox they bore regarding Bees games. This was their 3rd time in a row getting rained out while attemping to enjoy a Salt Lake baseball game.

We went for ice-cream instead :).

It was great to see you guys!

The next evening we went to a Salt Lake ReAl soccer game since Lexi had been invited to join her friends' soccer team to walk on the field with the pro. players. That's Lexi with #15 of the Canadian team. We saw Paul Pickett and Allen there on the field (helping ref.) ReAl won 3-0.

She got a free t-shirt :)!

Sunday (yesterday) Sky at 3mos 1wk. He's sure good at giving us smiles now.
There now you're current :).

Resurfacing . . . (cont. from previous post)

...And then one day around the 5th week the sun breaks through and you get your first real smile. You feel like you've finally been paid and suddenly it's all been worth it!

Skylar @ 2 months (yesterday)

-Cool headress little buddy!-

-2 month photo shoot-

-First smile captured on camera-

So, although it's still a constant battle of the goop, life is slowly returning to a more manageable state, and we can see and enjoy the loving little person inside our new bug.

I'm A Survivor!

I need a t-shirt with a picture of our little angel that says, "I Survived the First Month!" Mostly I just toughed it out in a zombie-like state. Not too much fun involved with nothing more than constant ick coming out one end or the other and serious sleep deprivation.

His welcome home banner :)

The 1 month photo shoot :)

~His first bath~


I had all the help I could stand :)

-Sweet baby-

~Enamoured big sistas~

-precious boy-

(first day home)

Here He Is!

Holding Skylar for the first time.

So, once at the hospital we repeated the same senario of a month ago when I first had the unusual bleeding to again discover everything was okay, but since we had planned to induce the next day the doctor gave us the option of just staying and we took her up on it.

It's a good thing we were in the hospital during labor (they started me on the pitocin around 7pm) because that really brought on the bleeding -even a "record size clot" according to the nurse.
They gave me the epidural as early as I wanted it (I was only at 2cm) and that was the worst part. I was amazed that afterwards I found I could even sleep through the contractions. This birth was in stark contrast from the last time with Micaela when I never did get the epidural (it became too late), so I was a happy camper.

There was some concern about his heart rate dropping with the contractions, so I had to wear an oxygen mask the whole time. And the source of the bleeding was never exactly pinpointed whether it was just the cervix softening or a slight tear in the placenta that they couldn't find. The good news was that it didn't hurt the baby.

It seems that once I hit a "five" things go pretty darn fast and they hurried to get the Dr. to the hospital just in time, but Mom missed everything by 10 minutes. It was only 3 easy pushes and Skylar arrived at 1:10 am on March 19th after all (Dad's birthday) weighing just 6 lbs. 5 oz. (my smallest) and was 20 in. long. He initially swallowed some blood that they hurried to suction out. Of course Steve was too busy delivering to do any video recording. Yes, we had previously asked the Dr. if Steve could deliver which she was happy to agree to. Steve was excited about it for weeks. He also sutured me up and cercumsized our little guy.

His two big sisters are SO in love!
Lexi, instantly became the "other" mom. She can be quite posessive and protective of Skylar.
She just can't get enough of him. You should hear her cooing over him saying things like, "OOOooo, he is SOOOOooo CUTE!"
She is certainly proud of her new little bro. and loves to show him to people.


-Our sweet little Sky!-
Loving our new addition (Lexi's upset she's not holding him).

Precious son, we're so happy you're here safe and sound!

We're Goin' In!

So, I've had a couple spotting scares over this last month, but this morning I had the biggest one and the Dr. is sending me into Labor & Delivery right away, so I'm off to pack! I'm not too panicked though because I'm still feeling him move. Steve who is at work has a replacement coming in and will meet me at the hospital.

-3 hours later...
Okay, Mom just got here (nice timing) and NOW I am leaving for the hospital. Not sure what will happen. Maybe I'll end up back home tonight and go in tomorrow as was planned to induce or maybe we'll just induce tonight. Whichever, wish us luck!

Art Lessons

In Feb. and March I taught a couple art lessons in Lexi's kindergarten class. The first time I created a nifty color wheel and copied it off for each of the kids which we painted in during the lesson. We also talked about warm and cool colors and discussed some artworks that applied.

The second lesson we practiced drawing using certain lines, shapes and shading.

Micaela sat right with Lexi at her desk and participated. It was a blast to get to know Lexi's classmates and be a superstar teacher in my daughters eyes. Of course she excelled in the lessons :D.

Micaela has the school thing down.

~Alexis' masterpiece!~

Blessed with Friends

Wonderful neighbors and friends are a blessing we are deeply grateful for. This past Saturday our friends the Schmidts, Hulls and Binghams threw a shower open house for Baby Skylar and I. There was great food, fun and gifts. This kid is set!

Cute washing machine card.

~ The spread~

Candace and little Morgan

~ The spoils~