Annual Fall Drive & Pumpkin Carving

Nathan and I have went on a drive to look at all the pretty fall leaves for years now. I was excited because this was Ryan's first year to get to go. After church and lunch we headed out. We went to our usual spot and took pictures as a family of four (of course we had to do that in shifts so we were not all in the same picture - but you get the idea). The spot was beautiful as always and Noah had so much fun playing with sticks and weeds - he is easy to please :)

Our Spot :)

We then went home and carved pumpkins. This was Noah's first year to really get into it. He wanted to be right there with Nathan as he gutted them and me as I carved the faces. He just kept saying "Whoah" - it was so cute. I had bought the bigger pumpkin to put Ryan in like I did Noah when he was younger but she is too little - she can't hold her head up and the pumpkin was too low so it just didn't work :(

The before picture...

Hey - what is going on in there?!

Kisses for his pumpkin ;)

After!

Fall is by far my favorite season and we had a great fall weekend!

14 years ago today...

14 years ago today there was this blue eyes blond haired boy that I caught driving by my house - (he was a total stalker) :) - and ended up going out to eat with him - (apparently I like stalkers) :) He was so sweet and somewhat shy and I was hooked. At the time I couldn't imagine that 14 years later we would me married, have two kids, and still be in love and so happy! We laugh every day, fight every few days, and love every second! I am lucky to have found someone so early in life - we have almost spent half our lives together at age 30 - that is crazy!

We will probably celebrate our anniversary with take out (eaten at home) while we carve pumpkins with our kids - sounds pretty perfect to me! Our official anniversary time is 10:26 p.m. (yes, we know the time) and we will probably celebrate it asleep - because that is what 30 year olds with two kids do, go to sleep before 10:00 :) Here's to the next 14 years and beyond!

Here are some oldies but goodies from the last 14 years:

Dating

Junior Prom

Senior Prom

Senior pictures

2000 (Snell Wedding)

  

Engagement picture :)

2008

2011

2011

2012

Gerber Mother to Be Day!

When I was pregnant with Noah I had a friend sign me up for Gerber Mother to Be Day. I had no idea what it was, but it sounded like fun! I was a little hesitant to go because it was an hour away and I had to go by myself and I was 9 months pregnant and very swollen. But, I went and I am so glad I did! The Gerber employees were so nice and helpful and help carry things for you and bring you things - they spoil you! So, I was so excited to register to go again this year. It is such a popular event that you have to register and depending on how many registrants there are they have to draw names to see who can go due to limited space. This time there was 192 expecting and new moms! I was excited that I got to take Ryan with me this year and show her off :)

Ready for Gerber Day with Momma!

As soon as you pull in the driveway they give you a door prize - a box of Nestle and Gerber products! Then you go in and you walk around and judge the door prizes put together by the Gerber employees (the winning employees get a prize). Thankfully, both times I have found people there that I know to sit with so I didn't have to sit with strangers. They first give away random prizes - like who has the most kids (got a bottle of aspirin), who most recently gave birth (got a bouquet of flowers), who has the most boys (got a first aid kit) - funny stuff like that. Then there are presenters on carseat safety and a pediatric nurse with lots of helpful information. Then we get to see a history on Gerber products and how they are made. Then you get to taste test the baby food - yummy! - and they serve lunch. Then it is time for the good stuff - door prizes! They have everything from cribs to strollers to carseats to cash! I won a bouncer and a bag full of bottles and Gerber food!

It is a very generous thing for Gerber to do - Noah loves his Gerber food and at 2 1/2 years old he eats it everyday! I had a great time there with Ryan - our first official Girls Day out! :)

My Little Pumpkins

One thing I always looked forward to as a parent is taking my kids to the pumpkin patch! Fall is my favorite season and it is never officially fall to me without a trip to the pumpkin patch! This year my mom and niece Eliza went with us. Noah was alot more into this year and cooperative! He loved the scary trail they had set up and the maze. I just love watching him run around and be happy! Ryan wasn't impressed this year, but I know I will be chasing her around here next year!

Ryan Maelynn is 1 month!

I have been a bad blogger and we have some catching up to do! I stayed at home with Ryan for two weeks and once again very quickly realized I am not meant to stay at home! I was not allowed to drive for two weeks either - which was totally annoying! I do not like depending on others for anything or having to have help with things, so I was so glad to be able to handle things again. Nathan got a stomach bug a week after I had Ryan, so that was a test for sure! Thankfully we have great families who helped us out and drove me where I needed to be and even came over and helped pick Noah up  for bath and bedtime since I wasn't allowed to. I am still technically not supposed to be lifting Noah, but any mom that can go 6 weeks without picking her two year old deserves an award! I am healing very fast and have no pain in doing most anything. I am a habitual rule follower so it is difficult for me to break this rule - but I think it was a little much. We also had people bring us food every night for the first week! Some nights we even got two meals! We were very well taken care of for sure. But, after me and Ryan's two week check-ups we were ready to get back out in the world!

We have now been at work for two weeks and she is just an awesome baby at work! She pretty much sleeps and eats and she lets me get alot done surprisingly! Only two more weeks and she will be joining Noah at Ms. Lauries.

Now, here are the highlights of what Ryan's up to now:

* She weighs around 9 pounds and is still 21 inches long! The normal weight gain is an ounce a day and she has been averaging two ounces a day - healthy girl! She is a good and quick eater! It took Noah about 45 minutes to eat and she only takes about 20!

* She can be a very good sleeper. The first two nights were pretty rough, then she started sleeping 6-7 hours in a row! Now she will sleep anywhere from 2-7 hours at a time. We haven't got a good routine established yet. I am hoping to get that done in the next few weeks on my end and hope she cooperates. I do not mind at all to get up with her every 2-3 hours (that is expected of a newborn) but I prefer the 6-7 hours stretches so I am hoping that she decides to make that a more regular occurrence soon :)

* She is still comfortably in newborn clothes, and some 0-3 months are not too big.

* She is still in newborn diapers and unless she does some major growing soon, she will be for a little while longer. They are still fitting her good.

* She tends to grunt and choke in her sleep alot. So, we asked her doctor about it at her 2 week check-up. He put her on Zantac for silent reflux (silent because she isn't actually spitting up, just choking on it). After I started her on the Zantac she would spit-up, which was odd since it was supposed to prevent that. So, we had an Upper GI done on her and it came back normal. So, her doctor thinks that her stomach is not mature enough for how much she is eating (since she is gaining weight so fast) and it should just work itself out. So, we have to have her sleep elevated (not ideal since I can't put the apnea monitor on her while she is elevated) - so she sleeps in her nap nanny or swing. Hopefully this gets better soon - Nathan and I do not like having to constantly check on her to make sure she isn't choking throughout the night.

* Noah is loving having a baby in the house! We were all worried and it is usually the first thing people ask us about. He pretty much ignored her at first, but now he doesn't like her being upstairs if he is downstairs or he doesn't like us in the car and Daddy bringing her out in a minute. He wants us all together - it is cute. We let our waitress hold her Sunday and he cried because she walked off with her! It made me so happy :)

Here are some one month snap-shots in the same rocker recliner that Noah had in his room and all of his monthly pictures done in:

It is so cute when she crosses her eyes trying to focus on things :)

My smiley girl :)

She already loves pinky!

(We will have Pinky in each months picture to compare her size as she grows)

Noah doesn't let her get too far away

Happy One Month to Our Sweet Ryan!

Power of Prayer

I believe in praying. I have had so many prayers answered. For the last 6 years, a majority of  my prayers had to deal with getting pregnant, staying pregnant, and healthy children. Due to infertility, Nathan and I both prayed alot to get pregnant and our prayers were finally answered, in God's time and in his way. With Noah, God led us to the fertility clinic and to the doctors to help us with our miracle child we had been trying for, for 4 years. Then we decided to try on our own the second time since the doctors could never diagnose a specific problem with our infertility. After only 7 months of trying this time, God answered our prayer. I immediately thanked God and began praying for a healthy baby.

At 17 weeks along I started experiencing complications with my pregnancy. I was really worried I was miscarrying. My doctor said there was no evidence of anything wrong that could be diagnosed at that time. So, we did all we could do, we prayed harder for a healthy baby.

I now know that my baby's cord was not properly inserted into the placenta (a condition known as Velamentous Insertion) - a high percentage of these pregnancies do not make it past 12 weeks and they are usually forced to deliver at 35 weeks after bedrest to avoid a stillbirth. I also now know my baby had a prolapsed cord - if she would have put pressure on the cord, it would have cut off her blood and oxygen supply and she would have been stillborn or brain damaged. So, the odds were, unknowingly to us, stacked against our baby girl. Thankfully, we prayed when we thought things were fine - because to our surprise, they were very much not.

I now know how lucky I am to have two healthy children, and you better believe I pray every day and thank God for that and to continue his protection on us. This helped me realize that it is just as important to pray when things are going good as it is when life is tough. So, my advice to you is to pray, pray hard, and pray often - especially when things are going good, they may not be going as good as you think.