Thursday, May 23, 2013

Kenna's personality

Oh how I love my Kenna.  She is quite the girl.  I know I talked her up for her birthday post, but I love these pictures of her because it shows her playful, sly, funny personality

75 % of the time Kenna is looking at us just like this!


She walked out of the room wearing boots and wanting to go outside to play in the snow (to her credit she was just starting to get dressed but I thought it hilarious that she put the boots on first).  Love that girl!

Saydee at 1 month

I thought I would do a little photographing since I didn't have the funds to take her in and really how hard could it really be?  Well they definitely make it look easy and have cute poses which I was unable to recreate.  I did get one or two though that I liked and can I just say I am so glad that we are done with baby acne!



Good portion of the time was trying to get her to stop crying

My favorite with the beautiful 3D blanket Grandma Bailey made her.





This is the invite I made for her blessing that I was never able to send because my computer was being stupid! (why did I spend over an hour trying to get it just right--who knows)

Arrow of Light

Right after eating Kenna's Birthday cake we rushed over to the church so that Damen could finally receive his Arrow of Light.  He had earned it months before but the last time they did an Arrow of Light Ceremony was when they were gone to Notre Dame.  So lots of things were packed into this night.  Seth grabbed a few photos for me since Saydee was being her typical night time self and not wanting to be silent or still.







Congrats Buddy!  Now moving on to bigger things (more frustrating for Mom) but lets hope good experiences for you! (So far mom's not a big fan of boy scouts--was really hoping the church would drop the program but that's lookin' like a no-- Dang!)

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Kenna turns 3

Kenna turned 3.  I can hardly believe she is this old.  In so many ways she is still my little baby and in other ways I can't believe how grown up and mature she is way beyond her years! Her birthday was going to be super crazy so we hurried and opened presents first thing in the morning.  Sh got 3 "computers" or little learning pads.  She loves them and they keep her completely entertained during church!



For dinner she wanted pizza.  I asked if she wanted homemade or store bought and she said the kind Grandma made while I was in the hospital (Red Barron).  So that was nice and easy and that's what she got and is still on her face in these pictures.  For her cake she wanted a Christmas cake.  I said no because Christmas was like 3 weeks before.  So we went as Christmasy as we could with a snowman cake and she loved it.  Thank goodness. It wasn't one of my best creations, but she thought it was so that was all that mattered.



I love these two pictures.  We honestly could not get a good one she would either look away or turn her head or be crazy.  By the end we were all laughing!





Kenna is our little sweet heart.  She is incredibly smart and intelligent.  She has known all her letters and sounds since she was probably 2 yrs and 2-3 months old.  She is very perceptive. For example if Steve mentions the fact that he needs to get his shoes and socks on before he can go out and play with the boys, before he even gets up to go make that happen, Kenna will be standing there with both in hand.  She is very aware of others and serving others and helping them.  She is also so good about helping Saydee, sometimes more than we want but it's also so sweet to see the bond that is already forming between the two.  She loves her sister soooo much.  In fact she loves all her brothers and sisters so much.  We love her curly little head even though her hair is taking FOREVER to grow.  Kenna we love you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Saydee is Born

Saydee James was born January 9, 2013 at 3:50 pm. She was 9 lbs. and they said 19 inches but when we measured 2 days later she must have grown 2 inches because we measured 21". This whole pregnancy was hard.  I don't know that I ever felt great.  It seemed like if it wasn't one thing it was another, but we finally got her here and she's beautiful.!  I ended up being induced.  We finally got to the hospital around 9:30 and they got me all hooked up to penicillin and had that going for about 3 hours before they would give me the pit.  Once that was going the dr. came in and broke my water.  It took me a while to get to a 7 but once there I went fast.  In fact so fast that Dr. Anderson came to check me about 40 minutes after the nurse had checked me and I had still been at a 6.5.  When he checked he said "well lets have a baby and he ran out of the room FAST.  I told Steve to go and call the family to tell them to not have piano but just to come after dinner.  He wasn't back in the room when Dr. Anderson came back in all dressed in his scrubs.  He was worried he would miss it.  He walked back in in time to help me push and I watched as Dr. Anderson was still putting gloves on his hands as the babies head had already popped out.  With only two pushes she slipped right on out.  It was kind a neat because they put her right up on my chest and let Steve cut the cord but they actually had us clean her off.  She was on my chest for quite a bit before they finally took her over to be weighed.

Once they got all the technical things done they brought my crying baby back to me.  They told me to undo my gown and place her right on my bare chest.  At first I thought that was a little gross because she wasn't all cleaned off yet, but as they laid her down she stopped fussing right away and I felt this overwhelming feeling of love for my little girl and a great responsibility of just how much she needed me and needed to be close to me.  She laid there for a long time before I finally started to nurse her.  In that time Steve and I had come to the conclusion just hours before that her name would be either Grace or Saydee.  Once she showed up we knew it was supposed to be Saydee.  Steve knew more than I did but I still knew deep down that's what it was our own little Saydee James.





Mom and Dad brought the kids down they ended up having to wait a bit for me to change rooms and then FOREVER for them to bring Saydee to us.  They were being extremely slow in the nursery.  It took over 2 hours for them to clean her up and do what they do and bring her back.  I was a little frustrated.  Especially considering the kids had to get home and get to bed!

I do love this picture though of all of them seeing their little sis for the first time!




Kenna was SOOOOOO excited her little body could NOT contain the excitement.




First family photo with all 7 of us.


That pacifier was a life saver for the first few months.  Now she has discovered her fingers and love them more.  We ended up coming home the next day.  We were supposed to leave at 4:00 but they were again SLOW and we didn't get out of that hospital until 6:45.  The kids and Mom had prepared a nice dinner and we weren't even there to experience it with them.  Oh well!







Within two days we came to know that Saydee was supposed to be called Saydee.  She was definitely no Grace.  She's a little stinker.  She always wanted to be held and would fuss and fuss.  It was a very hard couple of months there.  Also when she was 3 weeks old she got pretty sick.  I finally took her to the doctor (I never take my kids to the doctor--so this is saying a lot).  The doctor thought that it was RSV.  I was scared to death.  I didn't know what to do.  She also had a double ear infection.  Steve was working in Park City and I debated about taking her to the hospital to just be tested and know for sure if it was or wasn't RSV.  I decided to come home and call Steve and ask him.  The doctor had also given us a prescription for Amoxacillan for her ears.  After talking it over we decided to watch it close and wait to see if the medicine did anything.  That night we also had Ben and Jared help Steve give her a blessing.  By 9:00 we were seeing amazing improvement and she had a great night sleep.  By Sunday, 3 days later, most of the cold was gone with very little signs of even a runny nose.  We had had such a scare that Kenna was not allowed to go to church again till March (she brought a cold home from nursery and passed it on to Saydee).  We were so grateful for medicine and the priesthood that helped our little girl.  It was definitely a scary couple of days!  We are so glad to have Saydee and her big personality in our home.  One time right after we found out we were pregnant, Seth was saying a prayer and prayed that she would return home safely.  She did and it's amazing how you feel so much more complete once your children are here with you.  We love our Saydee even if she is paving her own path in this world and refusing to follow the path of the rest of her siblings like sleeping through the night by 5 weeks.  No not our Saydee, she's out to teach me patience.  She finally slept through the night last week.  YEAH! Progress is progress.  Oh we ALL love her so much!