Day 1

I woke up at 7:00 to Landon kissing me goodbye.  I admit my first emotion was actual terror.  Me and four kids.  Alone.  All day.  I'm happy to say we survived.  Here's a glimpse into our day. 

Norah spent some time riding a Barbie horse. 

 I found this situation.  Twice.  I have suggested to Norah that maybe she use a stool if she wants to see the baby.

 Then Annie and Norah spent some time squirting toothpaste all over eachother.  I realized that Norah's hair felt a little stiff.  Turns out Annie cleaned her hair with hand sanitizer.  Straight into the tub.

 Once she was in the tub she licked all the toothpaste off her legs and arms.

 Between baths and breaking up fights, this was my view.

 Norah loves baby Liz.

 And so do these two.

And now they are all in bed.  Hallelujah.

Welcome to the World, Liz!

She did it! She came!  Only 8 days late, but that's fine.  She was worth it.

So here's the scoop.  Monday morning I had an appointment with my midwife because she doesn't like her patients to go over much longer than a week. Especially when they are already dilated to a five, almost completely effaced, and have a history of fast labors.  I desperately didn't want to get induced so she was willing to try a few things before we did a straight induction.

In the morning she stripped my membranes and sent me out walking.  I spent a good two hours power-walking around downtown Salt Lake while Landon sat on a bench on a conference call.  I'm sure I looked awesome.  After two hours, nothing had really happened so I was willing to just go along with an induction.  We met my midwife at the hospital and while I was waiting I had a contraction that felt like it could be the real deal.  Yay!  She broke my water at 3:01, labor started soon thereafter, and baby Liz came at 5:01.  I am surprisingly grateful that I didn't have to use pitocin or anything and that Liz could come when she was ready.  All in all, it was a great experience.  Oh, and a shout-out to Shannon, the best delivery nurse ever.  I love that woman.

So, welcome to the world, Elizabeth Colleen.

Here are some "before" shots.

40 weeks

41 weeks and 1 day. At the hospital waiting for her to come.

And, the beautiful, miraculous "afters".  

Norah thinks that Liz is "SO TUTE!"

What?!  How are there that many people in my family?  Woah.

Annie loved all my bracelets.  The hopsital bracelet was nice but she really loved my "swirly bracelet"- the IV port. 

And this is what I did today. I love this part of a new baby. 

Still waiting, and some pictures

I'm officially 41 weeks.  We are STILL waiting for this baby to come out.  My midwife doesn't want me to go much longer, so I'm guessing if things don't come naturally, I'll be induced in the next couple of days.  Blech.

Today I uploaded the pics off my phone and thought I'd give a "here's what's happened this summer" update according to the iPhone.

We have a picture of all the kids on this statue from every trip to the zoo.  Here's the latest.

 We have made trips up to Bear Lake to check on the cabin my parents are building.  Norah is VERY helpful when it comes to choosing exterior paint colors.

 The view is fantastic.  I'm excited for it do be done.

 We always spend some time in the gym after church while Landon chats in the hallway.  Good times.

 The kids' dance skills are improving.

 All the food trucks in town gather at this plaza on Thursday afternoons.  The plaza happens to be right by Landon's office so we sometimes meet for lunch and entertainment.

 She's cute. Except for those lovely bangs she cut.

 We discovered the best snow cone place around.

 Norah is a decided carnivore.

 This will always be one of my favorite views.  Little feet hanging off the toilet.

 We also love Liberty park.

 The other day I couldn't find Annie.  I finally found her just just standing in the rain.  she's my little nature girl and I love it.

 I made some divine apricot jam with apricots from our neighbors tree.  It's like liquid gold, folks.

 Norah responds to mosquito bites as well as Annie does.  I better stock up on the bug repellent and benedryl.

 All Utahns: check out the new Natural History Museum.  We loved it!

 Landon brought this home from work for me to wash.  If you aren't going to eat the leftovers, please don't leave them in your office drawer for who knows how long.  Gross.

 To make up for that nasty picture, here's a delicious one.  My favorite breakfast.  Baguette with butter and apricot jam, rich hot chocolate, and fruit.  Thank you, France, for teaching me that one. And thank you, mom, for watching the kids so Landon and I could enjoy this breakfast alone on the back porch.

 Norah was pukey last week and spent a good amount of time with crackers and elmo.

 And Aiden went rock climbing with Landon for his birthday and is a natural.  Well done, Aido.

Cross your fingers that the next post is about our new baby!

Nesting

I love the nesting urge I get when I'm pregnant.  This pregnancy I took on the basement and the office as my projects.  And I must say that I really liked how they turned out.

Here are a few before shots of the basement in various stages: You can't totally tell from these pictures but there were three different colors of paint on the walls, and four different textures of wall.  It was lovely.

And here is the after: New paint, pictures on the wall, and pillows.  Landon is planning on building some toy storage which will cover that mess, but it still looks better than it did.

My favorite thing in the room is the allred sign.  I had the kids watercolor paper and then cut out the letters of our last name from the painted paper.  I love how it turned out.  And the kids love to see what they painted.  I clearly need to fill more of the frames.  But hey, since when is any project completely crossed off the list?

Project #2: The Office

Here are some before pictures. In all honesty, it was never actually this clean.  Ever.  These were taken right when we moved in, before it had a chance to gather every spare item in the house.

 This one shows a little better what it usually looked like.  Notice the precarious stacks of stuff in the background.

And here are the after pictures.  Landon built me the bookshelves and desk.  The drawers are from Ikea and Landon built the desktop to go on top of them.  Eventually I'll put pictures on the walls, but for now I'm liking the clean look.

And now we are getting out the bassinet for the baby,  which will live in here for the next few months.  Goodbye clean office.  It was wonderful for a few short hours.