Monthly Card Club

Hey guys,

These are the first 3 cards I'm making in January for my card club.

For more information, visit my card blog www.monthlycards.blogspot.com

Thanks!

It's official...

I've finally done it. I've finally decided to take the plunge and join the world of Stampin' Up! demonstrators. As part of my decision I am starting up a card of the month club. The way it works is, starting in January, I will send out 3 different greeting cards, (birthday, thank you, friendship, get well, etc.) to each member of the club for $6.00 a month. They will be original and hand stamped cards made by me...maybe with a little help from Alan...we'll see. It's been a big decision and I'm really excited about it and I hope it will work out. I also started up a blog for my business. You can take a peek at it at monthlycards.blogspot.com. Let me know what you think!

Halloween and 1 month old

I would make two separate posts...but I'm lazy. At least I'm posting at all :)

For Halloween Madison was a carebear...I know real creative. haha I wasn't very ambitious, but she still looked super cute so I think it's okay. She loved her princess bucket to collect candy in too.

And Kennedie was a little pumpkin. I know, I'm really not creative...but she was just too little for an uncomfortable costume. I promise next year I will do a lot better! We had fun though. We went to my dad's schools Halloween parade (the only place I got pictures at), our ward trunk or treat, my parents ward trunk or treat, and Beth and Jeff's Rock Band party. It was super fun and Madison was so done with the carebear by the end. Haha.

My dad was super creative too and was a hunter...again. He is a hunter every year for Halloween. His excuse is that it's the perfect costume for going out and doing his favorite activity afterward :)

Kinley was adorable, as always, as Minnie Mouse. How do you love that pose by the way. This little girl has some awesome drama going on these days.

And Garrett was an awesome rocker! He wasn't too keen on getting his picture taken and this is about the best I got. He really liked Madison's princess bucket too :)

This little girl is one month old! (In the picture at least...now she is technically 5 weeks old.)

Some of the time she is doing this...screaming. She has a hard time working her gas out. It's super sad.

Most of the time I find her like this... I forgot how much little ones sleep.

But mostly she's just an amazingly beautiful little girl. I couldn't ask for sweeter girls. I love it!

Our New Normal

I thought I would post a little bit about how we are doing these days. This little girl is by far the best baby I have ever seen. She eats well, she sleeps well, and when she is awake she is happy and content. She rarely cries and is happy to be held or lay by herself. She is starting to open her eyes more and more. I love snuggling her. I forgot how fun and rewarding it is to take care of a newborn.

Madison is doing really well with the adjustment. This week she is acting a little bit more clingy. When I sit down to feed Kennedie or just to hold her, she gets upset and wants me to hold her. It's really hard feeling like I have to choose between my two babies needs. It's even harder that Madison doesn't understand that Kennedie's need to eat takes precedence over her need to hold mommy. She's getting better, but I know she just needs time.

Fortunately she still completely loves Kennedie. She is very protective of her and loves to hold her. I constantly find Madison peeking into Kennedies bassinet when she's sleeping just to look at her.

Here's my pretty girl wide awake! I love her beautiful face!

Today my boss had a baby shower for Kennedie and we had lunch at her house. My coworkers daughter, Kaley, just had a little boy 10 days before Madison and she brought her little boy with her to the shower. He was 8 lbs. 2 oz. when he was born. It's funny to see the difference between them.

Here are me and Kaley holding each others babies. It's so fun to have babies around! It will be fun to see these two grow up together.

Our Sweet Angel

I don't think I have ever been so happy to be home than I am right now! As nice as all the nurses and everyone are at the hospital, I would much rather be at home doing it on my own. So here is the birth story. It's kind of long because I have to start a few days before we actually had her. So bear with me.

For the past couple weeks my belly had been measuring small and then this last week it didn't grow at all. My doctor was a little concerned and gave me an ultra sound on Friday to measure Kennedie and make sure she was still growing. After the measurements the estimated age was 31 weeks. The scary thing is that I was 36 1/2 weeks along. We knew that she would probably be small because Madison was and I just have small babies...apparently. But the estimated weight was 4 lbs. + or - 11 oz. So the ultra sound was saying that she would be from 3 lbs. 5 oz. to 4 lbs. 11 oz. Either way, teeny tiny and I was terrified. Madison was 5 lbs. 11 oz. and so little, so I couldn't imagine having a 3 lb. baby. Anyway, so my doctor decided to have me go home over the weekend then come back Monday to remeasure and make sure he hadn't messed it up or see if she was growing. That was the longest weekend of my life by the way...I couldn't sleep and I was racked with worry. I didn't really know what to expect and my mind was just constantly consumed. I was terrified of what would happen if I had a 3 lb. baby, I was worried about time in the NICU. All the worst case scenarios were going through my head.

We asked all our family to join us in having a special prayer and fast that everything would work out the way it was supposed to and Kennedie would be okay. Just so you all know, I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your prayers. We definitely felt them and we could feel the Lord's hand in all this. It was a huge blessing.

Sunday I started having harder contractions than I had experienced before, but they weren't regular and only came like once an hour or something. So I didn't really think much of them. That night just before 11:00 they got stronger and started coming 4 minutes apart. I couldn't sleep through them. By 3:00 they were coming every 2 minutes or so and I told Alan that we needed to go to the hospital. We got to the hospital and they started the moniters and sure enough I was in labor. I was dialated to a 4 and my contractions were still coming every 2 minutes and getting harder and harder. They admitted me and around 6:30 I got my epidural...ahh bliss...haha. It was smooth sailing from there. At about 10:00-10:15 (probably at this point I wasn't really looking at the clock) my blood pressure dropped and so did her heartrate. They came rushing in and gave me oxygen and said "Oh we're ready to have your baby!" They called my doctor to come and it felt like an eternity before he showed up. I leaned over to Alan and told him that I bet I would only need to push one time and she would be here because I could feel her sitting right there ready to come out. The nurses wouldn't even let me give a practice push because they were afraid she would come. My doctor finally got there and had me start to push. Then he said "Okay stop. There's her head." Then we had to sit there and wait for what seemed another eternity until the NICU nurses and respiratory therapists got there. So I sat there with half her head out. They finally showed up, I pushed once and she was here! She came out crying which was the best noise I had heard in my entire life. All the fears of under developed lungs and size issues left my mind when my doctor said she looked awesome and the NICU nurses could go. We shouted for joy to see 5 lbs. 3 oz. on the scale. It was an emotional weekend with a great outcome! We are so glad that she is here safe and sound at 3 weeks early.

That is one proud daddy. There is something truly special about a daddy with his little girls.

My parents had Madison and they brought her over to see us once we had her. She was very interested in meeting this Kennedie person I had been talking about for the past nine months.

She proceeded to pointing out her facial features.

Our little family. Alan's just a bit out numbered now.

Alan's parents came by to see us at the hospital too. This is grandchild #50 for them I believe.

Madison also got a new baby that giggles and cries and kicks it's feet. She has been pretty spoiled with new toys from grandmas, aunts, and mommy and daddy. She's doing really well today with everything. Yesterday she seemed really frustrated. None of it, thank goodness, has been directed at Kennedie though. She thinks baby "Kennenie" is pretty dang cool and loves to touch her and share with her. I hope it stays that way.

Kennedie is doing really well. She slept really well last night and only woke up to eat and then went right back down. She is a super content baby and sleeps all the time...you forget how easy they are at this stage. She is perfect in everyway and we feel so very blessed!

Here we are, me and my girls!

Kennedie Mae Paxton

My sweet baby girl was born this morning at 10:24 am. She weighs in at 5 lbs. 3 oz. and is 18.5 inches long. She's teeny tiny, but she's strong and is doing well thanks to many prayers! I will put more pictures and the birth story on later, but we are so happy she's here!

Madison's New Hobby

What do all theses things have in common?

random Madison things...all have to do with this...

the diaper. All these things, along with many other items...including different bits of food...have been found laying around my house in random (clean) diapers.

The diaper is often found in the most coveted spot of all the toys. You have to be very special to end up in the stroller, especially by yourself.

Here she is at work...watch the master (the water bottle is baby powder by the way, use your imagination).

Madison could sit and diaper things for hours and quite often does. She really has such an active imagination. She plays pretend super well. It's really fun to watch. The problem is that this morning she was up playing in her room and when I went in to check on her she had taken her own diaper off, I'm assuming because she couldn't find another one to play with, and was diapering a book with her own diaper. Thanks heavens I had just changed her. I could see that going very badly someday though...we'll see.