More Catch up - Christmas

Cali didn't let me finish yesterday, so I will try this again.

We spent Christmas Day (evening) and the following 5 days in Texas visiting my family. We got together with everyone on the evening of the 26th to open presents at my sisters house. Here are just a few pictures.

Our new family of 5!

Me with my 3 kids. That still feels so weird to say!

My kids with cousin Dakota. (My niece Alyssa is not in any pics this year because she just got her wisdom teeth taken out that morning!!) Poor thing, she was so out of it and so swollen. We were going to wait until Sat the 29th so that she could feel better, but she wanted to go ahead and do it anyway. What a trooper!

Cousins again with Dakota trying to eat Cali's dress!

HAPPY NEW YEAR and time to play catch up!!

I haven't updated this thing, but I will try now if Cali lets me.

This was the first year we (just my little family) were either not traveling or didn't have family here on Christmas Eve. Santa was able to find us at home this year. The kids were given strict instructions NOT to come down the hall or peek down the hall until they got us up first. They followed the rules mostly. They only saw Cali's stocking - which she almost didn't have. I forgot until about a week before she was born that she needed one.

Caleb and Caden loved all the things from Santa. Here are just a few pictures of them with a few of their goodies from Santa. I am sure Cali will like the the little things she got from Santa, but we have no pictures of her enjoying them. Actually she was "attached" to me during the whole Santa hoop-la. I am sure she would have chosen that over a few toys anyway.

Caleb's favorites from Santa were his watch that he specifically asked for and his two mounted posters. One is Tony Romo the other is Adrian Peterson from the Minnesota Vikings (formerly an OU Sooner in case you didn't know.) Caden's favorite was everything. She was so enthusiastic of everything this year. However I think she really enjoys all her new dress up clothes and jewelry the best.

They were both having a great morning until they wanted to open the presents under the tree. Too bad for them we had to wait a few more days.

We left on Christmas day to head down to Arlington to have a late Christmas with my side of the family. People thought I was crazy traveling with a week old baby, but she did great.

Santa Baby

Home from the Hospital - AGAIN

First of all we are all doing wonderful - now!! Cali has been totally healthy from the beginning, but I had some issues. The anesthesiologist messed up my epidural the first time and I got a "wet tap." I had no idea what that meant at first, all I knew is that he was going to have to do the whole process over again. ( I was told a wet tap is when the needle penetrates the spinal sac and enters the spinal fluid. In itself, it is not dangerous. Because the epidural needle is larger than the spinal needle, the hole in the spinal sack may continue to leak and not seal itself off immediately. This causes a spinal fluid leak - or wet tap. This causes very severe headaches.)

That was an understatement. The last few days I have had the worst headache I have ever had in my life. It didn't just stay in the head either. It went all around my head, and felt like it was shooting down my neck and back. It hurt to move, to sit up, and basically it hurt to do anything besides breathe.

The doctor apologized several times and said that it had been over 3 years since that happened to him. I guess he was trying to make himself feel better. Anyway so this morning since it wasn't any better I went back to the hospital and they gave me what they call a "blood patch." (This procedure involves taking a small amount of blood from a vein in your arm and injecting it into your back in the epidural space. The blood clots and "patches" the hole.)

Now I feel so much better and I can enjoy my sweet bundle of joy!!! Here are just a few of the over 200 pictures we have already!!!

The picture above of my 3 angels was taken on Wed evening. The others were taken as we were leaving the hospital to come home.

In my first post about Cali we didn't mention much, but she is so strong and healthy. When they were trying to get her measurements she grabbed a hold of their measuring tape and she tore it in half. She is already a really good baby and doesn't cry too much. She only cries when she is hungry or when we change her diaper. She has really big hands and long feet.

We initially only planned to stay one night in the hospital, but due to the headaches we stayed the 2nd night. At about 7:30 our nurse was told to ask us if we would mind switching rooms. Apparently they were starting to become full and had a few that were going to come in the next few hours. They wanted to move me to a room a few doors down that was a regular room not a labor room. I didn't mind since the kids weren't planning on coming back up before we left. When the guy brought our last load of stuff over they gave up 2 huge boxes of diapers as a thanks for moving. I thought that was nice of them.

Our new PRINCESS CALI

Our new "not so little" princess came into the world this morning at 10:42 am. She weighed 9 lbs and was 21 1/4 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing GREAT!!!! We are at Lakeside Hospital and visitors are welcome, just please call first.

Here are a few pictures taken at less than 1 hour old! She is such a little chunk and already has a few leg rolls. She has a bunch of dark curly hair, but her eyebrows are really light so the nurses think she is going to be blonde. She is very healthy and was delivered very quickly with no complications in about 3 minutes.

BOWLING !!!!!

Caleb has been asking to go bowling for months but we kept having to put it off. Now that all the Christmas parties were over and Cali can come whenever she wants to, I thought this weekend would be perfect! We went tonight after church and had a great time. My mom came with us too, but she didn't bowl because she is still in her walking boot from her surgery. It was probably a good thing too because she is really good and she probably would have beat us. She is very competitive and said "if I can't do it well, I am not going to do it at all." Hmmm . . . sounds familiar.

Caleb has been bowling numerous times, but tonight was the first for Caden. They both did really well and had high scores of 99.

Here are my adorable kids before we started bowling.

Here is Chris and Caden.

Here is Caleb after his first strike. Chris was too far back and the lighting sucked, but you can tell he was very excited.

Here is Caden's first strike - ever!!!

Here is Caden after I TRIED to make her re-enact her VERY EXCITED response to her first strike that I didn't catch. Obviously I failed!

Here are a few other very excited reactions of Caden that I did manage to catch.

Here is Caden "lounging" while waiting for her 2nd ball. The first time she did this I thought it was so funny, I had to take a picture of it too!

Here is me asking if I am bigger than this bowling ball.

Here is a video of some of Caden's bowling.




All in all we had a great time, except for the fact that I am STILL PREGNANT and bowling did NOT put me into labor. I am still having inconsistent contractions and as the day progresses my walking is getting even more weird. I am sure my body is going to pay me back for bowling 2 games tonight since I haven't bowled in over a year.

I have an appointment tomorrow morning so hopefully something is going on in there!!!

I STILL GOT IT - ALMOST BUT NOT REALLY!!!

I thought I would see if I could still get my leg up there. Sorta kinda, but not really!!! I was a little more flexible and had a lot more balance when I did it 13 weeks ago. The kids tried to get in on it too, however they wouldn't attempt to do it standing up. Those big sissies!!!

Well I changed my mind, we are not going to Tulsa today after all. Even though I don't think I am going into labor today it probably would not be wise to be almost 2 hours from my doctor - just in case. We have a few other obligations today here in Edmond anyway so this way we wont feel like we are rushing all day.