Asher performed in his Christmas program tonight at church. He and his little friends were pretty darn cute!!!
(Click on the collage to see the pictures better.)
(Click on the collage to see the pictures better.)
Sunday, December 12, 2010
We Made It!
Our first week of December started off with my dad coming to pick up my mom, then we were on our own! My friends Ruth and Shannon both made visits. We made our first outing by ourselves as a family of five and survived. And Asher had his four year checkup with his doctor. He's now 3'5" and 35lbs. He's right on track for his age (50th percentile). Other than that, toys were played with, baths were taken, food was eaten, naps were taken, and all the other "normal" stuff that happens in a house with three little kids ages four and under. We're figuring it out. :)
Click on the little princess to see more from this week.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Happy 4th Birthday, Asher!!!
We celebrated Asher's 4th birthday on November 30th! I can't believe he's FOUR! Our lives changed forever when he was born! We had no idea what it was like to love like that until he came along. The love a parent has for a child is indescribable, and he makes it EASY to love him! He may be a little rascal, but he's got a very tender heart and sweet spirit. He's hilarious, and he always makes us laugh! He's a smart little cookie too! He never ceases to amaze us! I cannot imagine our lives without our Asher Case Waters!!! We love him to pieces!!!
We had a really fun day on his birthday. His Gibbie (my mom) was still here, so that was special. We had birthday muffins in the morning - with a candle, of course. He opened a few different gifts throughout the day. We fixed special snowmen cookies as a surprise for his morning snack. He wanted to help me make his cake, so we did that before naptime, then he blew out more candles and we ate the cake after their naps. That evening, he got to choose where we ate dinner, and he chose "Old McDonald's", of course, where he and Ainsley also played. (That was our first outing as a family of five, but we had help - my mom. :)) And after that, Mom took Ainsley home to go to bed, and the rest of us went to see "Tangled", which was a great movie! On our way home, he said excitedly, "Thanks for my birthday movie! It was SO MUCH fun!" He's so sweet! We love our little four year old!
We had a really fun day on his birthday. His Gibbie (my mom) was still here, so that was special. We had birthday muffins in the morning - with a candle, of course. He opened a few different gifts throughout the day. We fixed special snowmen cookies as a surprise for his morning snack. He wanted to help me make his cake, so we did that before naptime, then he blew out more candles and we ate the cake after their naps. That evening, he got to choose where we ate dinner, and he chose "Old McDonald's", of course, where he and Ainsley also played. (That was our first outing as a family of five, but we had help - my mom. :)) And after that, Mom took Ainsley home to go to bed, and the rest of us went to see "Tangled", which was a great movie! On our way home, he said excitedly, "Thanks for my birthday movie! It was SO MUCH fun!" He's so sweet! We love our little four year old!
Happy Birthday to Asher!!!
(Click on the picture to see more!)
Friday, December 10, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
We loved having many of our family members here for Thanksgiving! It works out really well that we live at a camp. There are plenty of places for people to sleep. Thanks for coming, everyone! You made Lexi's first Thanksgiving special! :)
My mom stayed for several days after everyone else left to help us out for a while. She was a great help in lots of ways, but the things that stick out the most were her keeping up with the laundry, dishes, and straightening. Let's just say, it's obvious that she's gone now. :( (We're trying though. Beau has been a great husband and daddy!) She also put up our tree, which was awesome. I love having the Christmas tree up, but it probably still wouldn't be up without her. You were a lifesaver, Mom. Thanks for being here!
My mom stayed for several days after everyone else left to help us out for a while. She was a great help in lots of ways, but the things that stick out the most were her keeping up with the laundry, dishes, and straightening. Let's just say, it's obvious that she's gone now. :( (We're trying though. Beau has been a great husband and daddy!) She also put up our tree, which was awesome. I love having the Christmas tree up, but it probably still wouldn't be up without her. You were a lifesaver, Mom. Thanks for being here!
Click on the picture to see more of those days.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Welcome Home Lexi
I am a person who actually likes being in the hospital and being taken care of, but by the time it's time to go home, I'm ready. Grammie, Grandad, and Uncle Coby all came by the hospital on their way out of town to say bye. Then it was great to get home where we were greeted by more of my side of the family. Everyone enjoyed getting to see Lexi again before they headed home to go back to work and take care of their own kiddos except for MiMi (my sister Amy). She stuck around for a couple of days to help take care of us and was a huge help with Asher and Ainsley especially while Lexi and I got lots of rest and worked on recovering. Lexi was a little angel who basically slept non-stop, except when I woke her up to feed her. So far she's been very peaceful overall. Lexi had her first doctor's appointment that Monday and was doing really well. She weighed 7lbs. 1oz. (about 5.5 lbs. down from her birthweight, which was fine), and her jaundice was not serious enough to warrant another test, so that was good news. She also did her first modeling job for her newborn photo shoot before MiMi left on Tuesday. (You may have seen those precious pictures a few posts ago.) Then, we spent our first night alone as a family of five before everyone started trickling in again the next day for Thanksgiving. (Those pictures coming up in the next post.)
Click on the picture above to see our documentation of those few days.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Lexi Reese is HERE!
Well, I've already given the stats, but I finally got the pictures uploaded. Click on Lexi's FIRST photo to see more of our time in the hospital. And below is the story of when she decided to make her appearance.
The end of the pregnancy is always the hardest for me as far as the waiting goes. Even though I try not to, it's difficult not to wonder if every little thing might mean that it's almost "time". The week before she came, I remember feeling "different", but I was also trying to tell myself that it was probably nothing. Lucky for me, she really was getting ready to come out and meet us. It was a very productive week. The house was totally (well, that's a bit relative) in order, and my family and friend Shannon had gone in together to get our house cleaned. It was a HUGE blessing!!! Thank you again, family and Shannon!!! That was one of the best gifts ever...really!!!
At 11:30pm on Thursday, November 18th I started having contractions every 1-3 minutes. I timed them for about 30 minutes, then woke up Beau. Then I started getting ready to go but waited another 30 minutes to call the hospital. All I knew is that the contractions were very regular and somewhat uncomfortable but not intense. I was really torn about whether or not we should go to the hospital, but I have a history of handling a good part of labor very well and then it becoming unbearable all of a sudden. So, we opted to go. We called Hannah and Jesseka, the sisters who live less than five minutes away from us and keep the kids a lot. They got here at about 12:30, and we left about 1:00, I think. We needed just a few little things for the hospital, so we went to Walmart first before going to the hospital. Funny, I know! :) Afterall, what could a little walking hurt?
We got to the hospital around 2:30, just in time to WAIT MANY more hours to meet our little princess. I contracted every 1-3 minutes for about 14 hours and progressed a little but not much. I walked the halls several times and tried some different things to help things along, but to no avail. I was hoping to avoid pitocin, but that seemed to be the best option after so many hours. I was making some progress when my dr. had two surprise surgeries come up in the middle of the afternoon, so they turned off the pitocin for a couple of hours while he took care of those patients, to try to slow things down for me. It worked. I completely stalled during those two hours, which was a bit discouraging. They started it back up, then eventually broke my water. Things had already started intensifying quite a bit, but the difference after my water was broken was amazing and instant! The pain was steadily becoming more and more unbearable. I had also really wanted to not get an epidural this time because of my two previous negative experiences, but I was as "tough" as possible for as long as possible. I was practicing my breathing and remaining as "peaceful" as possible, but it wasn't working. :) I was hurting SO badly and even ended up throwing up from the pain, which I had never done before. It was brutal. The nurse anesthetist was wonderful! He was so kind and explained every little thing to me before it happened, and although I was in awful pain, he made the experience go as smoothly as possible. I really, really liked him! I was progressing really quickly at that point, so the medicine did not have time to take its full effect, but it was SO much better than it had been. All of a sudden, it was time to push. I pushed for about 30 minutes with Asher and 1 1/2 hours with Ainsley, so I was SHOCKED this time!!! Also, I was determined to push "well" from the very first push this time. I wanted this baby out! :) I pushed three times with the first contraction and after the second push on the second contraction the nurse told me to stop pushing and ran out the door. She had someone get Dr. Riddel IMMEDIATELY. I knew from the way I was feeling that Lexi was ABOUT to be born. I've felt it with my other babies, but it was so much more distinct this time. She was right there, and it BURNED like FIRE! Dr. Riddel got in there, and on my next push, there she was...at 8:55pm. The pain right before she was born was crazy, but the indescribable relief and JOY I felt the INSTANT she was born was beyond amazing!!! It was definitely one of the BEST moments of my life!!! And through it all, Beau was so sweet, encouraging, supportive, and sympathetic. He was the PERFECT husband! I'm so thankful for him!!!
And the pictures can tell the rest of the story. We were overwhelmed with joy...and EXHAUSTION!!! I hadn't slept more than three hours in the 48 hours or so before she was born, so in addition to the regular exhaustion from labor and delivery, there were HOURS more added onto that. I could barely keep my eyes open from the time she was born through the next day or so. But she was WORTH it!!!
We've loved getting to know our newest little princess! She is peaceful and so precious. We are so blessed!!!
The end of the pregnancy is always the hardest for me as far as the waiting goes. Even though I try not to, it's difficult not to wonder if every little thing might mean that it's almost "time". The week before she came, I remember feeling "different", but I was also trying to tell myself that it was probably nothing. Lucky for me, she really was getting ready to come out and meet us. It was a very productive week. The house was totally (well, that's a bit relative) in order, and my family and friend Shannon had gone in together to get our house cleaned. It was a HUGE blessing!!! Thank you again, family and Shannon!!! That was one of the best gifts ever...really!!!
At 11:30pm on Thursday, November 18th I started having contractions every 1-3 minutes. I timed them for about 30 minutes, then woke up Beau. Then I started getting ready to go but waited another 30 minutes to call the hospital. All I knew is that the contractions were very regular and somewhat uncomfortable but not intense. I was really torn about whether or not we should go to the hospital, but I have a history of handling a good part of labor very well and then it becoming unbearable all of a sudden. So, we opted to go. We called Hannah and Jesseka, the sisters who live less than five minutes away from us and keep the kids a lot. They got here at about 12:30, and we left about 1:00, I think. We needed just a few little things for the hospital, so we went to Walmart first before going to the hospital. Funny, I know! :) Afterall, what could a little walking hurt?
We got to the hospital around 2:30, just in time to WAIT MANY more hours to meet our little princess. I contracted every 1-3 minutes for about 14 hours and progressed a little but not much. I walked the halls several times and tried some different things to help things along, but to no avail. I was hoping to avoid pitocin, but that seemed to be the best option after so many hours. I was making some progress when my dr. had two surprise surgeries come up in the middle of the afternoon, so they turned off the pitocin for a couple of hours while he took care of those patients, to try to slow things down for me. It worked. I completely stalled during those two hours, which was a bit discouraging. They started it back up, then eventually broke my water. Things had already started intensifying quite a bit, but the difference after my water was broken was amazing and instant! The pain was steadily becoming more and more unbearable. I had also really wanted to not get an epidural this time because of my two previous negative experiences, but I was as "tough" as possible for as long as possible. I was practicing my breathing and remaining as "peaceful" as possible, but it wasn't working. :) I was hurting SO badly and even ended up throwing up from the pain, which I had never done before. It was brutal. The nurse anesthetist was wonderful! He was so kind and explained every little thing to me before it happened, and although I was in awful pain, he made the experience go as smoothly as possible. I really, really liked him! I was progressing really quickly at that point, so the medicine did not have time to take its full effect, but it was SO much better than it had been. All of a sudden, it was time to push. I pushed for about 30 minutes with Asher and 1 1/2 hours with Ainsley, so I was SHOCKED this time!!! Also, I was determined to push "well" from the very first push this time. I wanted this baby out! :) I pushed three times with the first contraction and after the second push on the second contraction the nurse told me to stop pushing and ran out the door. She had someone get Dr. Riddel IMMEDIATELY. I knew from the way I was feeling that Lexi was ABOUT to be born. I've felt it with my other babies, but it was so much more distinct this time. She was right there, and it BURNED like FIRE! Dr. Riddel got in there, and on my next push, there she was...at 8:55pm. The pain right before she was born was crazy, but the indescribable relief and JOY I felt the INSTANT she was born was beyond amazing!!! It was definitely one of the BEST moments of my life!!! And through it all, Beau was so sweet, encouraging, supportive, and sympathetic. He was the PERFECT husband! I'm so thankful for him!!!
And the pictures can tell the rest of the story. We were overwhelmed with joy...and EXHAUSTION!!! I hadn't slept more than three hours in the 48 hours or so before she was born, so in addition to the regular exhaustion from labor and delivery, there were HOURS more added onto that. I could barely keep my eyes open from the time she was born through the next day or so. But she was WORTH it!!!
We've loved getting to know our newest little princess! She is peaceful and so precious. We are so blessed!!!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The Rest of November 2010 - Pre-Lexi
LOTS of "growing up" has been going on around here lately - even before Lexi made her appearance. Ainsley had gotten to where she was climbing out of her bed all the time, so even though we had planned on waiting until we move, we ended up switching her to her toddler bed two nights before Lexi was born. Crazy, I know! But she has done great! Asher is still perfecting his potty training. He has been pretty much potty trained for quite sometime, but he reverts every once in a while. And the last month has been one of those "once in a whiles". However, he's been doing much better the last few days. He is also in and out of his bed many times a night typically, but he's also getting much better at not coming to our room until 7:00 in the morning. We're a work in progress, that's for sure! :)
So here are a few pictures to wrap up the pre-Lexi era. One of my favorite things this last month was watching Asher write his letter to Santa. It's pretty cute! :) (Click on his picture to see all the pics.)
Monday, December 6, 2010
Lexi's Newborn Photo Shoot with MiMi - 3 1/2 days old
She's only been here a couple of weeks, and we already love her to pieces! She's a very peaceful, easy baby so far, which we are thankful for!
Lexi Reese Waters
Friday, November 19, 2010
8:55pm
7lbs. 6.7oz.
21"
Lexi Reese Waters
Friday, November 19, 2010
8:55pm
7lbs. 6.7oz.
21"
Click on the picture to see the first of hundreds that I'm hoping to post in the next few days. These are from Lexi's newborn photo shoot with her aunt, MiMi (my sister Amy). The pictures she takes of my kids are always so special and such a treasure to me! Thank you, Amy!!! I love them!!!
More to come soon on life with Lexi...
More to come soon on life with Lexi...
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