Celebrating our five year anniversary

Can you believe what a marvelous whirlwind of five years it's been?  Paul had the great idea of taking our new kayak out to the lake, paddling it to the island in the middle, having a picnic, and then paddling back.  The air and breeze was lovely and Paul packed a delicious picnic - kumquats, rosemary bread, martinelli cider, different cheeses etc.  It was perfect.  Great idea hunny.  It sure has been an adventure with my dear hubby.  I love you Paul.  

Baby Grace newborn pics

Moses walks!

Let it be known that on this lovely summer day of June 16, 2014 I witnessed Moses take two full steps before falling down.  Go Mo!!  Love you baby boy, you of the lovely fat rolls and pudgy-wudginess.  I could gobble you up!  Also, you say ball but you call it "bu-bu."

Baby Mo is 14 months old!

Photo courtesy of Elisabeth McAllister

Photo courtesy of Elisabeth McAllister

What a way to enter 14 months.  With a brand new baby sis.  I guess they are 13 months and 3 weeks apart.  So far he is pretty sad if I am not holding him.  He senses something is wrong and needs a lot of cuddles.  What else is new with him??

• He can stand on his own for a few seconds and looks sooo close to walking
• He kinda says "dada"
• He understands quite a bit and shakes his head "no" when he doesn't want something
• When I say peek-a-boo he covers his eyes
• He is taking one nap now.  I rejiggered it to one so that I can hopefully have all 3 kids asleep at one  time.  It's a good sized nap though.  Some days from 12-4 or other days 12-3.  
• He is a pretty picky eater but loves rice cakes and drinking milk and oatmeal.
• He is a snuggler sometimes which Paul and I cherish.
• He loves Lizzie and she loves him.

I think that's about it!  Here's to a lovely baby boy.  I hope and pray he adjusts to baby Grace okay.  I love all our little ones so. 

A baby story

So as you can tell by the pics we were excited to meet baby Grace (I'm finally getting her name right.  I've called her Moses and Lizzie already, lol).  Here we are above during my 5 minute apart contractions and I think I'm waiting for my epidural to come along (man that whole epidural thing is so darn comforting but so very strange).  So about 12 a.m. my contractions were coming along strong.  Finally by about 2 a.m. Paul and I packed our bags, got our neighbor to sleep over, and headed on over to Park City hospital.  When I walked into the emergency room, it was right in the middle of a heavy contraction and ay ay ay mami!  That stuff is crazy.  I don't know how moms do it unmedicated.  Every single time I am pregnant part of me thinks "hey maybe I could do this."  But no sir.  No siree.  I have so much respect for any woman who does it naturally.  They must be made of stronger stuff than me.

Anyway, so I got the epidural and then we waited for it to kick in and took a little "nap."  Then about 5:30 or so our doc came in and got things started.  About 6 pushes later or so baby Grace was out.  This was the fastest one yet but I must say I am sooo soo grateful to have had three smooth and easy deliveries.  I feel very fortunate especially when I hear other stories of pain and woe from other moms.  So there she was placed on me.  Such a lovely little girl with lots of thick, dark hair.  She came out crying.

 Isn't she a cute little pumpkin?  Later that day Grandma McAllister brought the kiddos to see her.  Lizzie loved her right away and Moses just wanted to crawl all over the dirty floor so he was kind of a handful but it sure was nice to be a happy family there.

We got some hospital visitors like our friends the Libby's and my friend Rachel with her 9 month old little girl who looks huge in comparison.

The next day we left by about 6:30 p.m. and took our little bundle of joy home.

In the meantime, I've been trying to figure out how to keep our other ones happy and entertained.  I got Lizzie in a gymnastics class.  Also, she has discovered that my phone takes pictures and has been taking a million pics of everything.  Oh my.  Here are some family favorites.

Lizzie and Moses wrestling or whatever

Lizzie's first pics with my camera, oh my!

Well, that's about it for now.  Grace has a bit of a cold which really kicks in in the evening.  The cold is courtesy of our two lovely children who both have a cold and I am sure gave it to her even though we have tried really hard to keep them away from her.  What can one do?  Well, I leave you with a few more pics of Grace Luella.  And I am just soo grateful to be a family of 5 now and for such a happy life and healthy babies.

Welcome Grace Luella McAllister

We love her so much already!  9.0 pounds and 20 inches long and a bundle of peace and calm and love.  Born Tuesday, June 3 at 5:52 a.m.

Ground zero

I can't believe I haven't blogged in a while!  Guess I've been busy prepping for our baby girl whose due date is today!  Still a few hours left in the day right??  I keep getting false labor this time and wondering, is this it?? I wonder.  Paul and I are pretty excited to meet our new little cutie.  Lizzie is too.  She pats my tummy and says hi baby Grace and even kisses it.  Poor baby Moses is about to be out-babied.  I think it might be a big rough on him.  Anyhoo, here we go!

Can you get a look at these cuties??