At the hospital...

Hailey's Arrival

Hailey was born on Monday, December 22nd 2008, at 10:24pm. She was 7lbs 14oz and 21in long. Her hair is dark brown. She has long dainty finger's, and is very beautiful. She looks a lot like her big Sis, "Allana." Hailey was born healthy and we couldn't be more happy. Her delivery was very difficult and we had some complications.

I was induced around 8am on Monday. My contractions began around 9am and continued until 10:00pm. I was dilated at 9.5 for about 3hrs. Hailey's head was stuck in my pelvic bone. Finally, the decision was made that I would need to deliver her via C-Section for both our safety. My brother in law hurried to the hospital to give us a blessing. Thank you, Andrew. I'm very grateful you could do that for us. Within the hour, our daughter was born. :)

I am so grateful to my husband for all he's done for me during this time. He has exhausted himself caring for both myself and Hailey. He has been absolutely amazing! I am so blessed to have him in my life! He is such a good Father and a very sweet husband to me. He's taken such good care of me this week, both emotionally and physically. I am so happy we're a family! I love you, Aaron, so very very much!!

I couldn't have made it thru this without all of my family. I just can't say enough about the gratitude I have for them. My love for my family has grown even more. I am so happy to have them in my life.

I am so grateful for my Mom and the support she's given me this week. I can't say enough how much I love you, and how glad I am you're my Mom! She was with us the entire day, Monday. She was wonderful. It is hard to write this without crying! I love you, Mom, so very much!! Thank you for everything you've done for me.

I'm also very grateful to my Mother in Law for all of her help this week. She has done so much for my family. I really appreciate every bit of it! Thank you, Connie, you've been wonderful to us thru all of this. Both of our Mom's have been such a blessing.

I can't tell you how happy I am my beautiful little Angel has finally made it here! Because of the circumstances, she hasn't had the chance to meet all of our family yet... I can't wait for everyone to meet her. It's overwhelming the love I have for her already. Heavenly Father has blessed our family with a very sweet little spirit. I look forward to our future together as a family.

Allana has been here with us for the Christmas holiday. She and Hailey have bonded already. She has been a great big sister. I'm so glad they'll have each other growing up. Allana has taken such good care of her already. We're really going to miss her!

Soon as I have some energy, I will get some pictures posted of our little Hailey.

Doctor Update...

Things are progressing well with Hailey. We're scheduled to be induced this coming Monday morning, the 21st. Unless she makes an early entrance, by next week, we'll finally get to see our baby girl. We're so excited! Connie, Art, and Allana will be arriving on Monday as well. I'm looking forward to spending time with both sides of the family for the holidays. This morning our family had a great surprise... Erin and Matt had their baby, "Hank." Erin's due date was Christmas day... Henry (Hank) had other plans. :) He's healthy and seems very content. What a sweet little boy. We're happy he arrived safe and Erin is feeling well. What a wonderful year for our family... so many new nephews and a soon to be daughter. We have a lot to be grateful for.

December 6th, 2008

After the Baby Shower on Saturday, (Dec. 6th) Aaron and I spent some one on one time with our Nephew "Abryn" at the Boise Zoo. We had a great time. We saw the new Giraffe exhibit and learned our Zoo will be getting an Elephant and Hippo! How cool. We got hungry and had a snack. Abryn chose a Popsicle... it was so cold outside. He enjoyed every bit of it. What a great day!

(the picture isn't too clear.. was taken with my camera phone, sorry!)

Hailey's Baby Shower on December 6th, 2008

What a great Baby Shower
Thank you so much everyone!


My Mom and Sisters put a lot of hard work into throwing Hailey and I a very fun baby shower. Thank you for all you did for me. I had a fantastic time. We got some really wonderful gifts. Thank you to everyone who came. Wish I could have every one's picture in here... I'm very grateful to each of you who came. I appreciate the support and am looking forward to our bundle of joy! Won't be too far off..

Mom


Nici and Amy

Gram and Ezra

Long time friend Janet Benoit


Aunt Net, Kay, and Ciera

Gwen and I

Annette, Crystal, Sharo, and Emily

Long time friend Carma :)

*see older posts for more Shower pic's!*

Ciera and Davalee


Hailey's first Christmas Dress from Gram and Dorinda

Myself, Heather, and Megan

Megan and Emily

Erin and Thomas

Quick update...

I went to my Dr's Appointment today. I found out I lost another pound. I was super surprised because of the recent holiday... I enjoyed being able to cheat a little and eat some really yummy food. I had the Dr's permission, of coarse :) Hailey is progressing very well. They started NST's on both of us. It's a test to monitor her heartbeat, stress level, and the possiblity of me having contractions, etc. They do that test at the end of a pregnancy if you have the Gestational Diabetes. During the test, it showed I've been having regular contractions. They're pretty consistant.. about 5min apart and somewhat strong. I'm not dialating yet. I'm sure she'll take her time time getting here :) I'll keep posting updates on our progress as I have them to update.

Our Weekend...

Aaron's grandparents:
"Bonnie and Jim Hurst" came to visit for the weekend...

We also had the pleasure of visiting with "Connie,"
Aaron's Mom, and his older brother, "Art."
It was a short, but nice visit.

We are all so sad to see them all leave us :(

We had dinner together at Amy & Andrew's house.
This is Aaron showing Grandpa his awesome BBQ skills...
Tri tip and Ribs on the BBQ. Grandpa taught him well!
Yummy! Dinner was great:
Ribs, Tri tip, salad, coleslaw, potato salad, and garlic bread.
Aaron taught Austin how to make garlic bread.
Austin got to cut and butter the bread with a little help.
He'll make a great chef someday :)
The food was sooo good!

Art and Andrew kept busy playing videogames
while Aaron and Grandpa were outside
BBQing our awesome dinner.

Nana (Connie) made Ornaments for the kids to color.
They look nice! The kids did a great job.

We celebrated Art's birthday.
He's turning "37" in just a few days.
He was a good sport... looks great in a birthday hat!
The kids really had a good time.

Art's birthday cake:
Yellow cake, Chocolate cream frosting,
Toffee sprinkles, and a little extra something
just for Him on each side of the cake :)

What a blessing to have spent time with family!

Thanksgiving with Dad 2008

Aaron and IDad and Aaron

Back Row: Aunt Erin & Jack
Front Row: Thomas, Abryn, Branson, Austin, & Kaylee
(part of Ashlan, and Amiah was sitting on the end)
Aunt Erin brought cookies for the kids to frost

Family Picture:
Back Row: Aaron, Darrell, Andrew, Matt & Dad
Front Row: Molly, Nici, Amy, & Erin
Kids Back Row: Austin, Ashlan, Kaylee & Thomas
Kids Front Row: Branson, Amiah, Jack, Ezra, & Abryn

We had a great night and good food!

Braces...

Here's an updated picture of our Allana... can you believe she's in braces already? Growing up so fast. We can't wait to see her at Christmas... only 5 weeks to go and counting!

Honor Roll...

I got awesome news from my Allana this week. She made the Honor Roll! Yay! Daddy and I are so proud of her. She's such a beautiful and smart girl. We couldn't be happier! It can be tough to do well in school and we are so happy she is. Just wanted to share our "good news."

The Expansion...

This month has been an exciting one for Aaron. One of his many interests is video games. He loves pinball, computer games, his XBox 360 etc. It gives him something fun to do that is pretty cheap. Luckily for me, he's not the type to get obsessed over a game. He can put it down as easy as he picks it up. Two games he's been anxiously waiting for came out this month. Fable 2 and the Expansion for World of War craft. I took a picture (with my phone hiding in the baby depart.) of Aaron while waiting in line at Walmart. It was midnight! We were waiting for the Expansion to be released. The line went all the way down the isle and around the corner half way to the registers. It was a very long line. Aaron doesn't fit the part of a typical "gamer." His head is always shaved, he wears a goatee, and had on his leather jacket. There were probably 4 other guys similar to Aaron and the rest, well, they looked like the type waiting in line at Walmart for a video game to be released. It made me giggle. :)

This past week...

I lost another 3lbs this week. Yay! That makes me so happy. I'm learning how to control the gestational diabetes. It has been a new experience for both Aaron and I. I've discovered that when I've given into a craving or indulgence, it's no where as good as I was expecting it to be. Guess it's true... your tastes really do change. I've really been trying to control what I eat. However, I have had a few indulgences which have really helped to curb any cravings. Dr. West told me this week that Hailey is now between 4-5lbs! Wow... she sure has grown. We're so excited to meet her :). I can hardly wait. Christmas is creeping up on us rather quickly. Won't be much longer before I wake up thru the night to take care of Hailey. Before, It felt like her arrival was so far away. As the time gets closer to us having her... I can't believe how fast time really is going!

This has been a really nice week. I had a special talk (text.. ) with Steven the other day. The conversation was short, but, very sweet. I really care about him! I love him as much as I would if he'd been part of our family from the beginning! I am looking forward to him spending more time with us. He sure has been a huge blessing to our family. Steven told me how he wants to refer to me and I don't want to ruin our experience. I do, however, want to say I am so happy he's in our life and it is nice to have him verbally be part of this family.

I'm pretty sure this will be the most memorable Christmas I will have ever had. Not only will Hailey join our family, but, we get to have our sweet Allana this year for Christmas! There's also a chance Steven may be here as well for the holiday. I sure hope so. What a Christmas it will be. I can't wait! I'm almost done Christmas shopping. I found some really cool stuff~ I can't mention it in this blog because Allana likes to read these :). Allana~ I found some coal for you for Christmas :) Hope you like it.

I'm just kidding of coarse :).

Well, I should sign out of the blog. I can't keep my eyelids open. Goodnight :)

Hailey and I

Dr. Appt....

I went to my monthly appointment yesterday. Good news~ I've lost 2 lbs! May not seem like much... but most women are gaining weight at 7months of pregnancy instead of loosing it. I had originally only gained 10lbs up until now. Which means, I've only gained about 8lbs total. I'm very happy about that. My blood sugar's are staying in control so far. And, Dr. West commented that "If I continue as I am, I'll come out of my pregnancy lighter than when I began." That would make me very happy! He then smiled and said "your daughter is going to be bigger than you were." Yikes! Hailey could be a big baby. I was just over 7lbs myself. Aaron was just over 8lbs. That means we will likely be induced. We'll see... still have almost exactly 2months to go. I'm not going to worry about that right now. I'm focusing on trying to get things in order before our little bundle of joy arrives and the holidays creep upon us.

Amy "tagged" me... now I get to share 7 random/weird facts about myself. I would have done it sooner, but, I wasn't sure how to get it on my computer. I don't think I did it right... oh well :) That may help explain my first fact about myself:

1. I have always struggled trying to figure out how to work the computer! I've learned a lot blogging and from my handsome husband, Aaron.

2. I hate spiders. I don't like to squish them... instead 409 works great! Plus, it cleans my wall at the same time :)

3. When I was younger, I use to irritate Nici (on purpose sometimes). She was so funny when she got mad! All 3 of us girls shared the basement in my Dad's house. One night, Nici told me she would "pull my hair," if I didn't stop what I was doing. I didn't believe her... so I kept it up. Sure enough a minute or two later... here came Nici and with both of her hands, she pulled my hair! It only took a couple of seconds before we were all rolling around our beds laughing!

4. If I was a millionaire, I would adopt as many kids I could handle from foster care.

5. As a child, I loved to create my own recipes. I put jello, ice cubes, and water (i think?) in the blender one day thinking it would taste so good... little did I know it would turn into whole bunch of red foam. I don't recommend that recipe!

6. I was in two car accident's and went to the hospital in two ambulances the week of my 21st birthday.

7. Since Amy "tagged" me, I'll share a memory I have with her... those who knew us well while growing up know that Amy and I "had our challenges." I was one of those kids that use to complain when my siblings were "touching" me in the car. I will admit I still like my space. One day, Amy's leg was next to mine squished in the back of our car. I decided I'd had enough. I took the lotion bottle next to me and hit the top of her hand with it. I felt horrible after I did that! I'll never forget it. I don't know if I ever told Amy "sorry," but, it's never too late, right? So... I'm sorry for hitting you with the lotion bottle that day. :) I don't know if you remember or not, but, I've never forgotten it and have always regreted doing it. I love you :)

I'm "tagging:" Diana, Kim, Miho, Angela, Lorri, Jen, and Jeni *some of you don't have a blog yet~ I'm "tagging" you early :)