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!