Thankful for....

being able to do hard things....like make my own pie crust!

(and you might be able to guess that I am NOT thankful for my countertops....gross!)

tuesday brings thankfulness for...

this face.

musical monday (thanksgiving style)

On this greatest and grateful of weeks, I'd like to express my thankfulness for good music. (btw, am I seriously being a mormon mommy blogger, professing my love of Mindy Gledhill? ugh....but she's good!)

because i'm lazy.....but i want to share

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=257651&id=503526590&l=42c23a61e9

happy birthday to me

My great husband took me to this show last night...it was amazing.

the sun'll come out.....

hair is a mess

We're having visitors and I haven't even gotten dressed yet? (heh...funny, right?)

crazy right?

I was going to ask you to guess her age, but I think I said it in the video....oh well. So cute, so big, so shouldn't be doing this yet!!!

if you like SYTYCD...

We're making it a "Dancy Monday" because I am just that in love with this video!

favorites

She is 2, crazy.....and beautiful.

She is so clingy it hurts.....and I love to eat her up!

i have an iphone 4......that is all

just HOW stinkin' cute is this?

for real....how cute?

update

Benjamin was going through a box of old stuff a few weeks ago and he found an old journal of mine. After reading through some of it, laughing, and cringing, I've started writing in it again. I've been pretty casual about it. Sometimes I write multiple times, sometimes I miss altogether but I keep in on the counter and write as I feel the need to purge my thoughts.I've discovered that because of that I haven't blogged much. Usually the blog was the place for the brain dumping and cute picture posting....now I suppose it'll be mostly the latter.

Friday is our anniversary. For those of you counting, its been 5 years. We still laugh and still like each other a lot....what more can you ask for?

Its French Open time....anyone else watching?

Natalie is a climber. This last weekend she started with her kitchen. The first few times she climbed up I resisted getting her down, hoping that if she kept getting stuck, she would stop. Well at about the third time she decided she would just learn how to get down herself. It was funny to watch her feel her way down with her feet, looking for a place to put her weight. A cute little wall-climber in the making.

Natalie likes noodles (sometimes).

still hormonal

I watched this and cried....and cried. I am so blessed and need to live my life more gratefully. I'll also add that I know the things said in this message are true....I have no doubts.

brain dump

I was glaringly reminded today that I have yet to find "my thing". This seems to be a running theme with this blog....I must bring it up once every few months. Perhaps my thing is having daughters that only look like my husband. I do that pretty well, and doing it twice might qualify right?

I was introduced to the greatness that is this blog today. Thank you Janssen for FORCING me to waste precious nap time reading :) . "That wife" uses a beautiful term called "brain dump". I like that term, and almost daily feel like I have got to stop having the same 3 thoughts running through my head over and over and over again. I suppose that's what this is, since this post was started when I walked in the door tonight, handed Benjamin the baby immediately, and said "take her, I have a couple blog thoughts I have to get out before I forget them". And here I am....rambling.

Oh yeah....I do these....they're cute. I would GLADLY do one (or any kind of cross-stitch, as that IS as crafty as I get) for anyone that would like something. All you have to do is give me the pattern...and maybe ask nicely.

i have a need to gloat

I need to document that at 3.5 weeks old, Samantha has slept through the night twice. 1130-7......two days in a row. I am in heaven. I'll gladly take the kicks and punches from other, more tired mothers, along with all this glorious sleep. Even I can admit that this is ridiculous!

I'm 2!

We celebrated Natalie's 2nd birthday this last saturday. I can't believe she's 2. She is loud, cute, and very sweet to her baby sister. We love her and she is definitely our favorite first daughter.

is she a newborn?

It pays to have good friends with expensive cameras. Its even better to get lucky and schedule a photo shoot a week before they have their twins. Thank you to Robert and Cari of PinkRoom Photography. These are a couple of our favorites...but you can see all of them here.

Samantha weighs, today (2.5 weeks) , what Natalie weighed at 2 months. wow!

More of these photos, and a shout out to the photographers coming SOON (like when I have two hands to type with).

here's how it happened... beware of long and boring post

After I had Natalie, and I started this blog, I put up a detailed account of the day she was born. So its only fair that I do the same for Samantha. Its good to write it down anyway so I don't forget. Last time I used the texts between me and my sister Melanie to help me remember how it happened, this time my wonderful mother-in-law was my note taker.
Now as you know I was past my due date....4 days past my due date. It was Sunday morning and I was dreading going to church! I was very much over the whole "you're still pregnant?" and the "have you tried this yet?". I had reached my limit the sunday before. So as I sat at my computer, chatting with my sister Catherine (lame-o doesn't have a blog to link to), I looked at Benjamin and just started crying. He looked back at me, concerned, and asked me what was wrong, my response was only "I just want this to be over". The uncertainty of when and how Samantha would arrive was just too much for me. My mother, who had been here for a week, had gone home the day before....I was just done. I stood up, decided to go shower and get ready for church (maybe even shave my legs so I wouldn't have to wear panty hose), and suck it up. This was at about 11 am.
As I was in the shower, perhaps after I shaved my legs, I can't remember exactly, I felt what I thought might be a REAL contraction. I had a few more as I dried off and brushed my teeth. Then the next one hit and I decided to sit down and see if it went away. It lessened a little, but not too much. This went on as I got dressed and did my hair (seriously people, I looked good). I told Ben that he should probably get someone to teach his lesson at church, because even if these contractions went away, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to go and sit there for 3 hours while I felt like this. He made some calls and by 12:05 I said "you need to call your mom, she needs to come over". My contractions were clearly getting stronger, some 2 minutes apart, some 5 to 7, but definitely stronger.
Ben called his mom and she and Andrew, got themselves together, got in the car, and were on their way. By the time they got here around 1:20 ish, I was sitting on the porch, ready to GO!

Natalie had been put down for a nap, and we were outta there. Andrew, being the wonderful uncle that he is, and our good friend Karen, took great care of Natalie that day and I know she didn't miss us for a minute.

Anyway.....we got to the hospital, and here's the breakdown.
1:50- arrived at the hospital, I was checked shortly after that and was 4cm. That's 1 cm more than I ever got to with Natalie so at this point I was feeling pretty good about being able to do this thing the right way.
3:15- epidural. I think I handled the pain really well and tried to wait it out as long as I could, but I reached my limit.
3:40-Dr. came in to break my water, she checked me and I was 5 cm
4:00- this is when I started feeling LOTS of pressure

4:10- more epidural. There was a spot on my left side that I could clearly still feel, thank goodness the extra little shot made it go away
4:20- oxygen....just the beginning of my breathing/not breathing issues
4:45- 8 cm..YAHOO!
5:30- 10 cm....crap this means I have to start doing something now huh?
5:45- started pushing. Now let me tell you....I was very naive. My sisters are amazing baby having machines....all 4 of them. We're talkin' a few hours of labor, a few pushes, and you have a baby. I seem to work a bit differently. None of them have ever made their due date, let alone go late, so why I thought I would suddenly morph into one of them, I'm not so sure. After a few pushes I said "ummmm, how much longer do I have to do this?" and the Dr. of course looked at me and said "what did you think, it was just going to slide out?" my response was quite honestly "yes! I did".
Well....she didn't. I pushed for a little over an hour (I know, that's not THAT long) Inbetween each set of contractions I'd look at Ben and say "i can't do this anymore, I'm too tired". My upper body was completely gone. I was pulling on these handles as hard as I could and thought I would die. I woke up the next day convinced the Jillian had worked me out. But I did it. Somehow I did it.....
6:53- Samantha's born....NINE POUNDS TEN AN A HALF OUNCES!!!!!!!! and suddenly I felt completely justified in my whining and threats of giving up!!!! (yes, I'm aware that an hour is nothing compared to how long some women push....and they are greater women than me!)I won't go into everything that happened afterwards, but it includes 3 "blue spells" in which Samantha did in fact turn blue, and 2 days in the NICU. But all is well now (inculding 8 hours of sleep some nights), no doubt due, in part, to more prayers.

baby!

Samantha Susan Edgell arrived yesterday at 6:53 p.m. She weighed a wopping 9 lbs. 10.5 oz. and I pushed every bit of her out! Details of the joyous event will follow....

She's had to spend the first night in the NICU, but we're hoping its no biggy and we'll get to have her with us more today!

prayer update: they work

I feel like I need to express my thanks and gratefulness to any and everyone that really has prayed for me and this, yet to be born, baby. Even though she hasn't come yet, and there is still a chance of a repeat c-section, I have been given an amazing opportunity.

When I went to the Dr. on February 17 I was told "if you haven't had the baby by next week (the 24th) we are going to have to schedule your c-section for the week after (March 3rd), because we cannot induce you, and we do not 'let' you go past your due date". I was discouraged but hoped that over the next two weeks, I could hopefully get this done. When I went to the Dr. February 24th (I saw the same physician) I was told "over the last week, all the of practice has met and we've decided that we will augment (induce) labor in v-bac patients (such as myself). So not only do we not need to schedule your c-section, but we will also let you go to 41 weeks (March 10th)". So suddenly what I thought was only a week left to get things going, turned into three! Now, the idea of being pregnant until the 10th doesn't really sound appealing, but nonetheless, I know that it is an answer to the prayers that have been said on our behalf.

What are the chances that the practice would change their minds during the exact week that I was given to make a decision. If I had scheduled that c-section on the 17th, when I was first asked to, I'm quite confident that I would not have been told of the "rule changes" and would've proceeded to have my second c-section sometime next week.

I'm still hoping that I won't need the induction, and that I'll be able to lay on my stomach sooner rather than later, but I just felt like I needed to write all this down and say thank you.

One way or another, I'll have this baby by March 9th.

upcoming event.....

Who here likes to pray? Good, I saw a lot of hands, this is encouraging. If you happen to be sitting around looking for someone or something to pray for, let me through my name, and the name of my baby (which by the way is Samantha, or if it happens to show up a boy, I think it'll be Simon) out there for you. I'm due in a week and am trying to do this whole labor/delivery thing "the way God intended", instead of the way Natalie came....which was, I guess the way that SHE intended. So far things are looking fine, and after a hiccup or two, I'm still trying to be optimistic. But it never hurts to ask for a little extra faith and prayer, on our behalf, that this baby will come safely, and "naturally", at some point in the next 7 days. If that doesn't happen, I promise I won't blame you....much.

And here's a nice melon-y visual for you while you fold your arms and bow your head.

useless

I love sharing this kind of thing. I bought these pacifiers, when I bought diapers from diapers.com, so that I could get free shipping (its the best deal around). They sent the diapers and the pacifiers separately.....how cost effective.

22 months-ish

I cannot bear/bare to post more pictures of our house, cars, yard, sidewalk, all buried deep in snow....but I took this cute picture after Natalie's bath yesterday and though I'd share.

Poor little thing has no idea what's about to hit her with a new baby.

promise you'll make this...and then thank me for it.

Ok, so Janssen needed an idea for a good chocolate dessert. I have the very best idea for her, but it felt way too tacky to copy and paste the whole recipe into a comment on her blog....therefore I had to blog about it here and add the recipe. Its criminal that I don't have a picture, but alas, I don't. I had it the first time at Janaya's birthday dinner (go to that link, laugh a bunch, and then harass her into blogging!!!!) but I've made it once myself, received very appreciated praise for it, and have craved it daily since! Just trust me.

1 pkg devils food cake mix
1-3.9oz pkg instant chocolate pudding
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup hot water
2 cups sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven 350. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil, eggs, water, sour cream and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into the pan. Bake for 1 hour.( Make sure to check it, it make take less or more time depending on your oven.) Allow to cool slightly before removing it from the pan. Then allow it to cool completely.

You can dust it with powdered sugar or use the ganache which is what we use. 2 parts chocolate to 1 part cream. Heat the cream, remove from stove and stir in chocolate to melt, cool until it is the right consistancy to pour over the cake.

update

I am 35.5 weeks pregnant.....Natalie watches a lot of tv.

she took dad's whole side of the bed

After 22 months of life, Natalie finally slept in our bed....for a whole 25 minutes. The boogie man must have attacked her at about 1030 and because of my large belly (is there a baby in there?) I couldn't really hold and rock her in the rocking chair, so I brought her onto our bed. It took her a little bit to fall back asleep but I wanted to make sure she was really out before we moved her. In the meantime I was reminded that this is why my children will not sleep in bed with me. It doesn't matter whether they are 1 day or 22 months, I can be miserably tired and still not get one second of sleep. At some point I'm sure that I'll convince myself that my every move will not wake them up, but as of now I believe that to be true...and moving isn't worth waking up the sleeping child. It was a nice reminder to have 2 months before the new baby comes. Poor thing doesn't stand a chance.

i swear i don't do new years resolutions....

but for further documentation of my GOALS for the year......

2010 Goals

Spiritual- scriptures EVERYday (I really want to hit all 365, not just the 340 that I usually do, Ensign every month

Family- stay w/in going out to eat budget

Personal- run 5 miles a week

Educational- 5 non-fiction books on a specific subject

Professional- 1 day a week with NO tv

Always- temple, scriptures, prayer, visiting teaching, fhe

and just because my girl is cute....