Phoebe Ruth

SO after that long sort of traumatic labor, out came my sweet adorable baby girl! Oh she is so beautiful! Our fist reaction was holy cow she's huge! She was the same length as Max and Sammy were but a whole pound heavier so unlike our other skin and bones babies, she already had some cute little chubby cheeks and a little meat on her. Oh precious darling! We loved her immediately and she just knew just what to do and ate like a pro and then we all went to sleep.

 Max and Sammy were hilarious when they came to meet her the next morning. Even though Mom and Javier and me over the phone had talked to sammy all night about his new sister that was born and he even saw her picture on Facebook before he came to the hospital, the first thing he said when he walked around the bed and saw her was, "What is it?!? ....Is Phoebe out of your tummy?!?!" I died laughing. Perfect proof that 2 year old do NOT understand all they appear to. From the first instant the boys were totally enraptured with their little sister. Max is a natural with babies and just loves to hold her. He is also so protective of her, always washing his hands before he holds her and watching out for hidden dangers that could hurt her. I am so proud of him!

 And sweet Sammy just wants to hold her all day and kiss her and pet her and feel her muscles which is sort of hilarious! Also, he has been so helpful! Always willing to get things for me and throw things away for me. I;m so grateful that the boys love her so much already!

 Little Beauty!

 They gave us a little celebration meal where there was apple cider an dthe boys were so excited. Max shouted out, "Let's party!!" And they kept toasting with their glasses.

 Javier has been super Dad! He loves his little daughter! He stayed home with me for a whole week because my mom got the stomach flu and couldn't come over. I was so grateful to him. It was a huge sacrifice for him since he is taking his last CPA test in just a few days and has been cramming to finish it. he's been staying up late and waking up with the boys multiple times in the night and waking up early, but he's still willing to wake up and burp the baby or bring me things. He is such an angel. I'm so grateful for my wonderful Javier!!! I married a good man!

 Here she is all cozy and ready to go home.

I;m so grateful to have me darling baby! I am so grateful that she is out of me and healthy! Ironically I just realized today was my due date, and instead I have a healthy little darling 2 weeks old! What a blessing! I have spent the last 2 weeks just watching her and kissing her sweet fat cheek and thanking heavenly father for sending her to me!

Getting ready for baby!

Its crazy to think just a few weeks ago I had that huge little baby inside of me! No wonder I was so uncomfortable :)

 I love this picture of my Mom surrounded by grandkids!

 My darling little "Captain Americup" As Sammy says. He is always spiderman, or Raphael (the ninja turtle) or some other super hero. then he will say cute things like, "Spiderman wants some water!"

Also the boys love sharing a room! I am actually totally amazed that they have gotten any sleep at all. They have been waking up a fair amount, but I guess I should just remember what I thought it would be like and be grateful! They are sure cute little boys. I'm glad they love each other so much!

 So a week after we moved into our new house my boys got the stomach flu. We were so blessed thta they both got it the same night. One night of up all night throwing up and then they were pretty much done. A couple days later it was my turn to puke all night and by the next morning I was in hard labor. I owuld have been all over having the baby at that point since I was almost 38 weeks, but the thought oif having a baby while I was so sick and even worse of possibly passing some horrible illness onto my brand new baby terrified me. I spent the whole next day in the hospital and they were able to stop my labor sort of. It stopped for the night but the next day when I went in for my appointment I had progressed 2 centimeters and I was in labor again that night and since I was feeling better and in so much pain I would have gladly taken an epidural, I was ready to have the baby then. I was another centimeter progressed (a 5) but they sent me home. At that point I was so afraid I was going to have the baby at home or in the car since I was having such painful contractions so close together and progressing albeit slowly. My other labors went fast at that point so I was a mess of anxiety and each contraction reduced me to tears. Dr Klomp just said, you'll know and the nurses at the hospital said come back when your water breaks or when you feel the urge to push. What?!? Serioulsy?!?! So the next day we went to the zoo to see if that would get me admitted to the hospital. The kids had so much fun! I had so much pain, but it was for a good cause.

The contractions just kept coming 10 minutes apart so strong and hard. All night. Early the next morning I just couldn't take it anymore so Javier and I went into the hospital again. This time I had a kind soul for a nurse. She put me in a Jacuzzi and taught me some relaxation techniques that she said would help me progress and when she checked me I think she stretched me out a little and called it a 5 1/2. That was all it took to get admitted finally!!! I was so grateful to her! Dear kind Jody!

Doctor Klomp decided not to break my water, I'm not really sure why, whether he was really busy or if he was just trying to show me that without any help, labor takes a lot longer. I was an 8 and a 9 for like 7 hours.  Also when I first got my epidural I had a horrible reaction where I got really dizzy and lightheaded and so I asked the anesthesiologist to turn down the medicine. After a few hours I was not numb anymore, The nurse told me doctor Klomp was on his way so I didn't think there would be time for them to turn up my medicine and I didn't want to delay the baby being born so I didn't say anything, but Doctor Klomp didn't come for 2 more hours and by that point I was in a whole whole lot of pain. As soon as he walked through the door I burst into tears because I was so glad that now he would break my water and we could have the baby. I was still a 9 but the baby was starting to look distressed so they had me start pushing and out she came very very painfully just a few minutes later. It was a very different experience being able to feel the pain, not in a good way. The amazing thing is that I'm sure it would have been even worse without any epidural at all, and it was pretty darm apinful, so I am grateful to have had an epidural. So my water didn't even break and I never felt the urge to push interestly enough so that would have been a bad indicator of when the labor was "real" also my contractions never did get closer together. I'm glad I didn't listen to the nurses or my doctor.

We found a house like the second week of our hunt waited a month for the close and then found out a couple days before it would have been a done deal that it had a major mold problem which is a no go for us with Javier's mold death, so that was pretty frustrating, 3 offers and another month later I was completely done looking for houses, so when Javier showed me a disgusting smoked in, nasty house that was really cheap I said sure, whatever (I get a little crazy when I'm pregnant and all that house hunting and not finding made me super depressed) Unfortunately we didn't understand what "short sale" meant so we waited another 2 months (and we were doggone lucky that was all) to finally buy our house. Then with new paint and new carpet and new wood floors all the nastiness is gone and Javier and I both love our new house! I think Javier was a genious for finding it and he thinks I'm a genious for making it not disgusting so it is a win-win :)So Finally, after having the date pushed back again and again and the appraisal expired and so much drama, we finally closed on our house in mid January! 

Max and Sammy's bedroom had 2 scary dragon murals in it so the first thing we did was paint over them. Since the house was smoked in and we had to replaced the carpet I figured it was the perfect time to let them help us paint. Boy it was a lot of fun! And it was crazy, they both ended up covered head to toe in paint and the carpet looked hilarious! I thought it was empowering for them to get to paint the dragon themselves though. They were awfully proud!

 Some other fun things about our house were several broken doors and light fixtures (A friend of my brother Seth's did some work in the house before we bought it and found pot hidden in a light fixture and the neighbors have told us some pretty wild stories about the people who lived here before). Also when we went through the house the only thing we could find in any of the cupboards were boxes and boxes of beer and there were several garbage bags full of beer cans waiting for us in the garage when we moved in. All that combined with the fact that it was disgustingly dirty and smelly combined to make the house feel like a pretty sad and yucky place in the beginning.

 Its hard to tell but the paint was really dark and sort of ugly, so the house felt like a cave. And the carpet was just full of nastiness besides smokey odor.

 The day after we closed we invited the family over to help paint the kids bedrooms and play in our empty house. I was so worried about the yucky feeling in the house and whether that would go away. I loved the way that just having the big happy family in it made it feel better. By the end of that day I felt so much better. Then after we had the rest of the house painted and all the floors replaced and dedicated the home It feels happy and wonderful now. I am so so grateful! This post is only before pictures. I suppose the after pictures will come in the next million posts of life in this house :)

So we move din when I was 36 weeks pregnant. My dear mother and sisters helped so much! I dont know how we would have done it without my mom! We could never have gotten so much done before Phoebe was born and it was so nice to be done before she was born! It made that first week after she was born so much less stressful to have a clean nice comfortable home instead of a huge to do list where we couldn't find anything. Oh I love my mom!

So in December Javier and I got to go up to Utah for my dear dear friend Emily's wedding. It was beautiful and she an Rodolfo were beautiful! They are such a darling couple and I love them both so much!

 It was also Javier and my first ever night away from the kids which was pretty fun! It was like a super long date. We had such a wonderful day together but I was pretty much wasted by the time made it out to look at the lights together and having lots of hard contractions, so Javier got me a wheelchair and pushed me around.

 Max and Sammy love and adore their Aunts!

 We let them open their avengers action figures the day before Christmas and they were so excited!

 Every day when my sweet dad got home from work and in the morning while he was watching the news the boys would just attack him and climb all over him and he was so sweet, he would tickle them and wrestle with them and just let them be nuts and love it. They made an angry bird tickle game that the boys just laughed so so hard about. It was their favorite favorite thing!

 My darling little nephew Miles

 On Christmas eve we have a family tradition of having all the kids act out the nativity. Sammy and Max but especially Sammy are obsessed with their awesome 9-year old cousin James. Whenever we are getting together with the family, the first question is, "will James be there?" And then they just follow him around all night and hang on his every word if he is. He is the sweetest boy I ever saw too because he builds them things and teaches them things and is just so sweet to them all the time!

 Some pictures from Christmas morning... Some stickers from Santa

 And Binoculars

 And Maddie and Sophie being adorable and spending an afternoon making this amazing house from cardboard for my niece because she asked them to make a house for her raccoon.

 All the kiddos jumping on the snowed trampoline at Natalie's house. Sammy is always asking me if I remember this.

 On New Years day we all went sledding. I was enormously pregnant at this point so I sat by the fire. In fact just walking to the fire was enough to give me insane pain for about a week. Lame-o. But it was still a fun day.

 One day I was sitting on the floor and I looked over and saw this cleverly hidden vandalism. I had to get my laugh out before I found Max and made him clean it.

 Another cute picture of little Miles...

 And last but not least, Boise is freezing! We have had so much snow this year! Max and Sammy have loved it and I am thinking really? In Texas it is already spring. I just have to remind myself how awesome it will be in July...