Addie's Masterpiece

So, I was searching through conference talks on lds.org about raising children in the gospel of Christ, when Addie came in to show me her marker creation...

And...in case anyone else needs motivation in the "too much tv" area...

Research data indicate that families that limit television viewing to a maximum of two hours a day of carefully selected programs may see the following significant changes in family relationships:

1. Value setting will be taught and reinforced by the family. Families will learn how to establish values and how to reason together.
2. Relationships between parents and youth will increase in families.
3. Homework will be completed with less pressure of time.
4. Personal conversations will increase substantially.
5. Children’s imaginations will come back to life.
6. Each family member will become a discriminating selector and evaluator of programs.
7. Parents can become family leaders again.
8. Good reading habits may be substituted for television viewing.

Finished Hearth

Yay for no more eyesore in the living room!

Daddy - Daughter nap :)

3 Are Better Than 2

I can't say how many times someone told me something like, "Just wait until you have three--that's when you become a REAL parent." Well, I must say that I became a "REAL" parent when I had Jason. As fun as he was as a baby, it was a very difficult adjustment for us to have a child. Addie came along, and she was such an easy baby that it was smooth sailing--two was no trickier than one. And now, though they are all very young, adding Kaylie to the mix has been a breeze. Who knew!
I know you're all thinking--"But it's only been two weeks, just wait." And that may be true. But it's been a LOVELY two weeks!
I savor every minute I have with Kaylie, realizing how sweet she is. And because of her, I appreciate the different stages and personalities of Jason and Addie more than ever before.
Three has actually made my life easier and happier! I love being a mommy!

Next time...

Next time I won't put a toddler on the potty and walk away without taking the pen out of their hands ;)

You can't tell too well, but in addition to her "whiskers", the toilet seat and her legs are covered in markings.

Kaylie's Birth Story

For those of you who are interested, here is Kaylie's detailed birth story :)

Monday March 9th. I was having sporadic surges all morning long. My visiting teachers came over for a planned visit at 9:30 am. Crazy times with the kids frolicking all over. Jason even took it upon himself to go potty by himself while they were here—he neglected to put the little shield on the front of his seat (no suprise)—resulting in pee shooting across the bathroom. YIPEE for me. They left around 11, and we made lunch, and watched tv. At that point I was pretty much counting down the time until 1pm when they could go down for naps. Surges were coming every ten minutes and they were very tight. Because of the Wednesday night episode, where the surges felt the same but went away after a few hours, I still wasn’t planning on having a baby that day. I figured they would dissipate this time too.

I put the kids down, and laid down myself. Every few surges woke me up. We all got up around 2:40pm. It had been about 4 hours now that they were coming 10 minutes apart—very weird for labor, especially my labor. Around 2:45 I called my parents to say that it could be today, and since they were coming the next day for a funeral anyway, it couldn’t hurt for them to head down. They said they would set off in about 30 minutes. I immediately began cleaning out the computer room so my parents would have somewhere to sleep that night. Keeping busy helped me work through the surges—if I stayed still they became very uncomfortable.

At 3:25 I called Jason to say that it could be today, so don’t stay at work late (he is supposed to leave at 3:45). At 3:43 I called Richelle, the midwife, to tell her I thought it was time for her to come. I told her that for about 4 hours they were coming 10 minutes apart, and right around 3pm they suddenly jumped to 3 minutes apart. She said she would go ahead a come. Jason got home a few minutes later. I set about changing the kids out of their jammies, and gathering snacks, movies, and art supplies for them to use at our neighbors house. Jason set to work preparing and filling the tub. It’s snowing—a lot.

At 4:20 Jason took the kids next door to Corina’s—no one was home. Called Traci—no one was home. Called Stacy Lamb—success—Jason took the kids over right away. We forgot Addie’s blanket—he came home and took that back over. He got home about 4:30pm—I tell him we’ll have our baby within an hour.

In the meantime, Richelle called to say she would bring a different hose to fill the tub if we hadn’t already (we had half way)…and I’m thinking “Oh no, she hasn’t left yet.” She finally arrived just before 5pm. I had already begun feeling the pressure of the baby moving down. I had been trying to relax on the couch, I could not relax--too many interruptions. I got in the half-filled tub just before Richelle arrived because of the pressure I was feeling.

Richelle quickly set about getting things ready and listening to the baby’s heart. Everything is good. My arms are falling asleep and very uncomfortable feeling because I was not breathing in deep, full breaths of oxygen--I know better, but can't seem to concentrate on those breaths. Lots of pressure, Richelle gets Jason over by her because the baby’s head is beginning to show. Next surge, baby comes out and Jason works hard to receive it—it was quite slippery. It’s a girl!!! I snuggle the baby. Richelle gives her a quick puff of air. She begins breathing, and crying. She won’t stop crying. A few minutes later the assistant midwife arrived—whoops—she was disappointed to have missed the birth. It was all so fast that I didn't even have a chance to employ the HypnoBirthing techniques I advocate--but it was still an amazing natural birth.

My parents went over to pick up Jason and Addie, they came home about 5:30. The kids are enamored with their little sister. We all snuggled with our new little girl.

Kaylie Hope McKeighen
March 9th, 2009 -- 5:07 pm
7 lbs 5 oz
19.75 inches

NICE

Jason and Addie are sitting on the couch watching Sid the Science Kid on PBS.

Addie: sneeze

Addie: "Nose, nose, nose."

(She is telling me to come wipe all the junk off her nose that came out--I grab a tissue and head out to the living room.)

Jason: "Just slurp it into your mouth, Addie."

Me: "What???"

Jason: "Just slurp it into your mouth. That's what I do."

(I wipe her nose, and think to myslef, NICE.)

Cute Addie!

Addie and I are home from church...again. She has more sneezes and snot, blah! (Now you understand the 3 blog posts :)

Fire Place

After living here for over two years, we are finally getting around to the huge eyesore we have for a fire place. This picture (from our first week in the house) isn't great at showing just how ugly it was--but, notice the three missing tiles at the top center, and the ugly brown glue there in its place.

Those 70's tiles were 3/4 inch thick--they don't make them that way anymore. So, after scraping off all the brown glue, we added cement backer board to make up the additional space for our 1/4 inch new tiles. Also, under the tile on the hearth was about 3/4 inch of additional cement that we had to remove (I think Jason strained some arm muscles getting all that heavy junk out to the trash can last week. And I'm suprised the garbage truck was able to dump the can ;). We added some pine boards to make up the difference down there.

Both Addie and Jason have been such good helpers to Daddy on this project. Jason keeps Daddy company outside while Daddy uses the saw to cut all the wood and backer pieces. While Addie keeps me company inside. And Addie and Jason are both super great at handing Daddy screws to drill the pieces into place.

I'll post pictures soon of the finished project--hopefully we'll get it done before the baby arrives. We got our carpet cleaned last night which was a huge load off my back to accomplish before the little one gets here :)

Bedtime and Snuggles

Notice Jason is holding on to a blue toy wrench--it cracked us up that he had such a death grip on it.

I bribed Addie to get in PJ's that night by letting her sleep in Jason's old Elmo shirt. She loves Elmo. She has watched him on Sesame Street maybe 5 times, but has always been drawn to him.

The last pic is them having a "slumber party" in the living room while they watch Horton Hears a Who. My photo session of them unfortunatley made them wiggle and annoy each other--the rested and pleasant snuggles were over. That's what I get for breaking out the camera.