Rachel and Brett's Wedding

 Rachel and Brett got married on March 4th and it was such a perfect day!  I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of just the two of them.  I think it was cause I knew any that I got would not be nearly as wonderful as the professional photographer was getting, so I left it up to him:) 

These all pretty much speak for themselves, so I hope you enjoyed!  Heading off to Grand Junction for the weekend, so I will update with journaling later:)

Little Hunter has such a strong neck, he is really good at holding himself up!

The kids had been sick all week, and we were getting cabin fever, so David took us all to the park on Sunday afternoon.  The kids had so much fun running around and loved being outdoors again.  Brigham wowed us all with his arm strength and held on for over 5 seconds before David went back and got him down.  What a stud!

 It is so fun to see him get more alert everyday and grow. 

This is the cake I made for David's birthday.  It was 3 layers and had the cream and strawberries in between each layer.  It was really yummy and turned out better than I had expected.  David doesn't usually want a birthday cake, but I think this one convinced him it was a good idea.  We enjoyed a great tenderloin dinner with Sam and Nicole after our kids went to bed.  It was fun to have a great meal, uninterrupted:)

Here is Brigham playing airhockey with his cousin. They played so cute together!

 And here they are trying their hand at "Just Dance"

3 weeks!

It has been 3 weeks since Hunter joined our family and we have been so happy.  I have lots of pics to post, but they are not handy right now, and I have sick kids, so that is taking my time right now.  The kids had a cold the week we brought Hunter home and decided to give him that.  Then Wednesday, they got really nasty coughs and decided it would be nice if Hunter got that too!  So I am going a little stir crazy and getting so anxious for Spring time!  I sure hope old Puxatawny Phil was right and it is coming early!  Hunter is growing like a weed and is my biggest baby so far!  We took him in for his 2 week appointment and these were his stats:
9 lbs 2 oz
21 inches

I don't know what percentile those are right off the top of my head, but he has put on 1 pound 10 ounces since we left the hospital!  He didn't even flinch when they poked his heel for the PKU tests.  He did the same thing in the hospital and David has already nicknamed him "Tough".  He is such a sweet little baby and loves to snuggle, and I am trying to take advantage of it as I am realizing how quickly they grow:(

I was actually sleeping better the first week he was home than I have the last few.  I have what I call the "One Hour Curse".  Most nights I never get more than one consecutive hour of sleep at a time.  Between all the kids and David, I am up every hour or so, tending to one of them.  David has been a HUGE help with Brigham and Isabel and takes care of them in the middle of the night, but they still manage to sneak in and wake me up for any number of reasons. Naps are harder to come by as well as Hunter has started being awake right when it is the kids' nap time:) I swear kids have a 6th sense and know when Mommy wants to relax and then they decide they need something right then.  I guess I will get sleep someday, and am still trying to enjoy all of them!

Pics to come soon, when I have enough sleep to remember to upload them!

Visit from the stork!

Well, the day has finally come and we are so blessed to welcome a little miracle into our family!  Little Hunter Jack Bailey came into the world on January 19th, weighing in at 8 pounds 2 ounces.  He has a beautiful head of dark hair and is just so perfect!!!
Labor was quite the event.  I was due on the 15th, and each day that passed in the last 2 weeks have not been the funnest.  I was so desperate to have this little baby and hold him in my arms.  We also did not know the gender, so that was driving me crazy, wanting to know what we were having.  I was pretty convinced that we were having a girl, so to find out it was a boy was so exciting.  I was settling into the fact that I was going to be pregnant forever:) when I woke up yesterday morning and noticed some random contractions that were a bit stronger than my braxton hicks I had been having for months.  I ignored them for a bit, then decided to time them just for the heck of it, and to torture myself cause I knew it would turn out to be nothing.  There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to them.  By lunch time, I was just waiting for them to stop, because they were not consistent at all, and I had once again lost hope!  David came home early from work, and helped me feed the kids lunch and get them down for a nap.  I decided to lay down and get some rest, and that's when they started coming, the real thing!  I started having them every 4 minutes, and they were stronger.  After 5 or 6 contractions, I felt a big kick and a pop and knew my water had broken, almost exactly the way it happened with Brigham.  Right away, the contractions were coming really strong, every 3-4 minutes as we scrambled to get things in the car and call Nicole to have her watch the kids.  We got to the hospital 20 minutes after my water broke, and I knew this baby was coming fast!  At the hospital, I went from a 5 to fully dilated in 45 minutes.  1 contraction and 3 pushes later, our little Hunter made his grand appearance and it was quite grand:)  I am still amazed that this sweet little spirit, who I was waiting so impatiently to come, decided to make things exciting, and only give us 2 1/2 hours from the time my water broke until he arrived.  I guess he taught me a lesson in patience:)
We are recovering well and excited to go home in the morning for some much needed rest without all the nurses coming in:)  David's residency program has been so wonderful and understanding and I am so grateful he has been able to be with me so much more than I expected.  
The kids are so excited he is here.  When they came to the hospital, Brigham just kept saying, "dats my baby brudder."  And Isabel had so much concern that he didn't have a toy and insisted we get him one ASAP.  I am confident they will show him lots of "love" and will be sure to keep an eye on them that they don't go overboard! 
I am still just completely amazed at my sweet little family and how perfect they all are.  I love my children so much and love this new bundle and the wonderful reminder he is of how I need to cherish my time with my children so much more.  I am realizing with each child how quickly time does fly and I definitely do not want it to pass me by with regrets.

Because David works for IHC, we were able to get these pics for free!  Enjoy!

Our Winter so far...

As I was looking through my camera for pictures to post, I realized how horrible I have been at taking pictures these last few months.  I feel like a pretty horrible mom for not documenting things better.  Anywhos, we got our first nice snow storm after Thanksgiving, and David was a fun daddy and took them outside and built them a snow slide.  They had so much sliding down on a plastic sack and tripping all over in the snow.  Brigham kept falling face down and couldn't move without help, it was sooo funny!

Yes, those are Isabel's old princess boots that Brigham is wearing.  Luckily, he got some new boots for Christmas.  It was pretty sad that he was calling these boots "my boots" and got so excited to put them on.  Poor 2nd child syndrome:)

Brigham turned the big 2 on December 14th.  I can't believe how fast he is growing up!  He was up before the crack of dawn, as usual.  And we decided to open presents before David left for work at 6:30am so he could play with them.

Oh I love this kid!  He has grown up so much in the past few months.  He is talking like crazy, as well as doing his fair share of sassing those he loves!  He just melts my heart, just like Isabel.  How are we so lucky to have such amazing kids???
After we played with his toys, we got ready for the day, and headed to the mall play place to let him run around and get some energy out since we haven't done much playing outside in the cold.  Then it was off to Chick Fil-a for a fun lunch and some more playing.
I got a little ambitious and wanted to try and make him a cake after reading some amazing tutorials on a blog (http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2008/11/make-cake-series.html).  It was far from perfect, but it was fun to do, and made Brigham happy, so...mission accomplished in my opinion!

The little man is quite full of hot air and blew the candles out with hardly any effort!  I guess he is a chip off the 'ol block!
My sweet Brigham, I hope you always know how much we love you,  you are such a special part of our family and such a wonderful little boy.


For Christmas, we went down to Ephraim to spend a few days with the Bailey's.  It was lots of fun and great to get away for a couple days.  Amazingly enough, Santa was able to find his way to Grandma's house on Christmas Eve to check on the kids.  First, I have to say, that this year, my kids+Santa= unmeasurable FEAR!  They love the idea of Santa, but definitely from afar!  Each time they have had the chance to talk w/Santa, they go completely awall at the last second.  And I mean, screaming and clawing to get away like you have never seen!  I will try and post pics from our ward Christmas party for further proof.  Well, back to Grandma's house.  Here is a great example.

This is the reaction we got when we told her it was her turn to sit with Santa.  Up to that point, she had been so excited and intrigued, but the tables turned when she found out she actually had to go up to him.  We didn't torture her and make her sit on his lap, but she had to go up and get her present from him.

 

Through sobs, she told him Thank You and quickly retreated back to the couch.  What was even funnier was how happy she was to open her present and see what he gave her....

Now, I am kicking myself for not getting Brigham's reaction documented.  It was so priceless and probably could have won me money on AFV.  He was equally excited at the thought of Santa, but when he walked in the front door and caught Brigham off guard, he went completely bazerk, and started screaming hysterically.  We got him calmed down enough until we tried to get him on his lap, then it all started again.  He did take his present from his hand and cried another "thank you".  He loved his zhu zhu pet and kept saying thank you.  But then, when the time came for Santa to leave, he walked past the couch right where Brigham was sitting, and Brigham didn't realize it until he looked up and Santa was RIGHT THERE, and he freaked out again, sinking back into the couch as far as he could go and screaming NOOOOO.  Part of me felt so bad that he was so scared, but I just couldn't stop laughing.  Just wish I would have gotten a picture of it:)

After Santa came, we played the Jingle Bells Game, which has become a tradition for the Baileys.  You take a big sheet, and put lots of little bells in it and then you all gather round it and shake the sheet to make the bells bounce all over to "Jingle Bells" playing in the background.  It has also become tradition for the older guys to bounce the sheet as hard as possible during the chorus and launch the bells ALL over the living room.  We usually lose at least 4 or 5 bells that have launched into the tree, or under furniture.  We usually get laughing so hard that tears are shed by many.  Definitely a fun tradition!
Christmas morning, we had to compromise with the kids and wake up at 5:45am.  But honestly, that is a normal time for our kids, so it wasn't too terrible.  Christmas was so fun for me because both of my kids had an idea of what was going on and were so excited.  Although, as we waited to go upstairs and see what Santa had left us, Brigham kept telling us, "Santa not upstairs, santa not here"  He was so nervous about having to see Santa again and wanted to make sure he had brought the toys and left.  So cute!
The kids (and adults) were all significantly spoiled with presents and we had so much fun watching the kids enjoy their toys.  Brigham got a really cute train track set that was Cars themed (he is obsessed with that movie and Lightning McQueen).  Isabel got lots of Littlest Pet Shop toys and houses.  It was so funny to see them both go to their toys, see what they got, then Isabel sat down in front of the train and Brigham started playing with the pets.  Hey, I guess they are easy to please:)
One of my very favorite websites is www.ana-white.com.  She posts free furniture building plans, and when I saw this doll bed, I knew I had to make it for Isabel.  A few days later, she posted plans for the really cute tool bench that is behind Brigham, and I got so excited to make some presents for my kids that would last long enough for their kids to play with them.  Isabel was giddy when she saw the new bed for her new baby and has made sure she is tucked in each night before she goes to bed.  Brigham has had fun pounding away on his bench with his new tools.  I am so glad David helped me build these, and glad I got them done before my carpel tunnel got really bad.

Christmas was wonderful to experience through the eyes of two sweet toddlers.  David spoiled me and got me a Bosch mixer.  I am really excited to get good at making our own bread, as soon as I can find the right size of bread pans!  Who knew it would be so hard to find some good ones??? 

We are anxiously awaiting baby #3. Today is my due date and I am so desperate to have this baby.  We can't wait to find out what we are having and look forward to our family growing and just getting better.  Wish us luck that we don't go insane learning to cope with 3 crazy kids under 4!!!