Ponytails & Chocolate Milk

All 3 of my chickies are under one roof tonight. Thank you Lord. :) 

As I sit here in the quiet listening to the dishwasher hum, the crickets singing outside, and 2 out of 3 of my dogs snoring, I am thankful. This time of night is my favorite.

Earlier today I picked up my big kids from a week long river trip with their Oma. It was great being back together. We played and laughed, and Cheyenne poked at the kids the whole 2 hour ride home. She was so happy to see them.

On the way home we picked up Whataburger and I ordered Cheyenne a chocolate milk. She normally drinks regular milk at home (warmed up for about 30 seconds, yes she is a bit spoiled). 

Wyatt was shocked that I ordered it for her, I said well I want to let her try something a little different today. He said wow she is going to be like me now! ( He loves his chocolate milk extra cold, shaken very well.) 

We didn't discuss more after that, we just got home, unpacked, and were enjoying being back home. 

Daddy got home and we decided to head out for FroYo after dinner. Cheyenne had been playing outside and her hair looked so hot stuck against her neck. So I grabbed a tiny little ponytail holder and managed to get her hair up into a ponytail. 

Is that not the cutest?!

These next 2 pictures PERFECTLY sum up just how she feels about said ponytail.

OH the drama. If she could speak she would say Get. It. Out.
I just crack up so much over that little personality.

Both the kids looked at her and ooohhh-ed and ahhh-ed over it, but it was Wyatt's reaction that stood out the most to me.

Momma, I almost forgot about Cheyenne at the river.

What?

She is just so different now!

What do you mean buddy?

She is just GROWED. 

We went to the river and now I came back and she is growed. 

She has a ponytail in her hair, and she is drinking chocolate milk. 

I had to keep from laughing, only because I know his feelings. 

One day they are babies, the next they are "growed".
He has always had such a tender heart, and I know he is going to be a great Daddy one day.

My heart is so happy to have all of my babies together, and growed or not, they will always be my babies. <3 nbsp="" p="">

Life Lately

For me, right now, life is BUSY. John and I are renewing our vows in THREE weeks. Yay! 

Taylor's birthday party is next weekend. Wow!

None the less, I am taking a break from sewing table runners and tutus, and I want to write about my babies.  :) 

I guess they technically don't fall into the "baby" category anymore but they will always be MY babies. 

Taylor is going to be 5 on Thursday. 

She is a sassy, independent, amazing little girl.Tonight, she told her daddy today that she would like a real computer, a real phone, and a real purse. Just like a grown up. When I told her that she was a little young for the computer and phone, she said but everybody has a phone, I will be so different, I want to be a grown up!

At first, I had no response... Thinking to myself, WHERE did that come from????!!!! 

Baby girl. You are FIVE. And I heard the words of my mom come out of my mouth, 

"Don't be in too much of a hurry to grow up baby."

And much like my own self  hearing that as a kid, I can tell she wasn't buying it. 

She keeps me on my toes. 

I am still coming to grips with the fact that in a few short months she will be starting kindergarten. I wouldn't say necessarily that I am in denial but they say admitting is the first step... ;) More on that another day...

For now, let's talk about my baby boy. 

He equally keeps me on my toes. Sometimes maybe even more. We have been potty training and this week has been a great success! For a few months now, he has done very well at home. But as soon as we would go out anywhere, I would put a pull up on just in case, and he would get lazy and use it as an excuse NOT to go. Even with no accidents at home he would act like he did not know a thing about the toilet and go in his pull-up. All that changed though, in the beginning of last week. He started telling me while we were in the stores that he had to go, and we would rush off to the bathroom and he would go! Accident free at home AND away for the past week now. Night time is still a work in progress, but today he woke up from his nap dry, and immediately went to the potty. I am a proud momma, and you can tell he gets so proud too. I just love that boy!

Feeling blessed and content tonight. ♥

Dear 16 Month Old Wyatt...

My sweet Wyatt, 

As of Friday, you are officially 16 months old.  

You are the sweetest, most loving boy, and continually bless us each and every day. 

You are running around all the time, and would prefer to stay outside all day if I would let you. 

The weather just turned a bit cooler, and we have some beautiful evenings to play outside. It's momma's favorite time of day.

You love to run and play in the backyard, in the sandbox, and on the swing set.

I cannot keep shoes on you. 

Your sister is your best friend. 

Whatever she is doing you like to be right there with her. 

You just recently have taken an interest in books. Taylor is beginning to learn most of her letters, so she loves to show you books and teach you what she knows. 

You are starting to talk more. 

You say momma, dada, ball, milk, night night, sister, more, ow-side, deer, and my favorite: what's that :) you also say "mi" for mimi, you can say oma, ba ba for ba paw, and am-ma for the great grandmas. When it is time to brush your teeth, ((which you love by the way)) you say teeth-teeth and start grinning.

You like to jabber a lot of other words as well, and I just nod my head and pretend to understand what you are saying. :) 

You love to blow kisses, and you have the most adorable wave to say bye bye.

You just spent a weekend at your Oma's house, and you love to be there with all your cousins. You and your cousin Cassidy are only 7 months apart and she loves you to pieces. 

Sometimes you can be a bit of a momma's boy, but I am not complaining. :) Cuddles are hard to come by with you, so I will take all the extra I can get.

 Even though you want me quite a bit, you and your sister are so in love with your daddy. At the end of the day you can recognize his truck coming down the road, and you, Tay, and Fifi all run to the window, eager to greet him. He barely has time to get his boots off before you both are tackling him, ready to play.

Your daddy loves you so much and is so proud of you. He can't wait to teach you how to hunt, fish, and throw a football. 

You love to go out to the garage with him and "help" work on whatever he is doing.

 You look just like him and I can tell you, you will continue to grow up to be a handsome man. I am a blessed momma. 

I love you sweet boy. Happy 16 month birthday.

Love, Momma  

The Story of Wyatt's {Birth} Day

How fast one year goes by. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my baby boy is going to be 1 tomorrow. At 3:53 PM to be exact ;)

And today is the day I went into labor... Although the nurse at the hospital might argue you on that one.. But trust me.... I was.

It all started at 1 AM.. I woke up from a dead sleep, feeling a sharp twinge in my stomach, and a feeling that my water had broke... I waited a few minutes to get my bearings and sort of assess the situation. I was not about to wake up John, simply because I did not make it to the restroom in time. After about 10 minutes of the same feelings I decided to wake John up. I told him I thought my water broke and we needed to get ready. He woke up faster than I have ever seen him wake up. However, rather than rush out of the house in a panic, we took our time. This was not our first rodeo.

Oh the joy of the second baby. YOU HAVE A BETTER IDEA OF WHAT TO EXPECT. Can anybody out there agree with me? Even though we read the books.... and feel that we know "what to expect when we're expecting" You never know until you go through it.

When I went into labor with Taylor, my sister drove 90 mph to get me to the hospital, and guess what... We still had 10 hours to spare!

But anyways. I will have to share that story later. Continuing with the birthday boy.

 I took a shower, put on some make up, packed my bag {no.. my bag was not packed.. yes, it was only 5 days before my due date..but back to previous comment, I knew I had time} packed Taylor Rachelle's bags to go to her Mimi & Bapaw's house for the next couple of days, called my grandma to come watch Taylor until the morning {she had been telling me for a month that she was on call to help with Tay because A) our apartment was only 2 minutes away from her house and B) I guess she had a feeling already that I would go into labor in the middle of the night} called my mom, called John's mom, texted my sister, texted Kim, Richard & Audris. So now that we were all packed, everybody notified, 2 hours later, we were heading to the hospital.

Meanwhile, during all of the hustle and bustle, I was trying to time my contractions. But they were completely irregular. 2 minutes apart one set, 10 minutes apart the next, 1 minute, 8 minutes.. and so on. Still, I knew I was in labor.

We arrived at the hospital around 3:30, I told the receptionist that my water had broken and I was in labor. She had me sign in, led me to a room, and we waited for a nurse to come in. Those of you who have been in labor before, might know the quick test they do to see if your water has actually broken, and for those of you who do not, I will spare you the details, other than the fact that there is a Q-Tip looking test stick that is supposed to turn blue.... mine did not. 

My heart sank, and my first thought was, OMG. Did I just notify the entire world that I had simply wet the bed? No. It couldn't be. I was having contractions. I told the nurse she had to be mistaken. She was wrong. The test was wrong. I knew what labor felt like and I WAS IN IT. Well.. the nurse did the best she could to calm my hormones, but I wasn't satisfied until she agreed to try the test again. No.Blue.What.So.Ever.

She calmly told me that I was in false labor. That since my contractions were irregular, I should try to drink lots of water, and go walk a little while to see if they stop. It is now 4:30 in the morning lady, you want me to go walk and drink water?!?! I told her, what if I was really in labor.. Did she simply want me to walk the baby out?! She told me that if I was in true labor, the contractions would get stronger and closer together, water would not help, and that I should come back to the hospital. Textbook.

But in case you can't tell where this is going, nothing about this labor and delivery went by the book.

Now the part I dreaded.. Walking outside and facing my mom, in laws, sister in law, and Richard & Audris {who by the way beat me to the hospital - they were ready for the arrival of Twoler ;)} So...the dreaded news.. I'm sorry all of you got up in the middle of the night, but I'm supposedly not in labor.... They were all very understanding of course {that or just not willing to get in the path of a hormonal pregnant woman - we will never know ;) } And when I told them my "directions" someone suggested we get breakfast! Great idea, I was starving, and if I was going to be having a baby later on, I might as well get a good meal in. So, we headed to Jim's, at 5 AM, we were the first and only ones in for breakfast :) After a nice breakfast, interrupted by a few contractions, we decided well, why don't we go "walk". But what is open at 6:30 in the morning? My first option, Target, did not open until 8, so Wal-Mart it was. I needed a new broom anyways.

I did not really want to draw attention to ourselves, but with a giant belly, and 8 people all walking into WalMart this early in the morning, we were bound to raise a few eyebrows... And we did! All the employees simply stared at us, as we made our laps around the store. Finally, we started sharing our bit of news, "She's in labor and we're trying to pass the time!"

Even bigger eyebrow raises and shocked expressions... Don't worry people, I'm not trying to have my baby here in the lawn and garden section. Which is where we parked it for the next 2 hours. I was tired, still having contractions, and we resorted to waiting until my doctor's office opened, to see what he wanted me to do. So we sat and we waited, rested, and timed contractions. Richard was my official timer, Mom the back up timer who got after Richard if he missed my start and end signal hand raise hehe, Sherry my gauge as to how painful the contraction was - I will never forget her telling me she was happy to see me wincing and pain in my face, that we needed it to meet her newest grandson ;), poor Audris got sick and was resting in the chair, Opa fell asleep, and John and Samantha my support group :)

But as much as we were ready for this baby, it was not looking promising... my contractions were not by the book. They were all over the place, and never, ever started on a normal pattern. The words of that nurse hung in my head, and I really started to doubt if I was truly in labor. 9 AM rolled around and I called the OBGYN office. I told them what was going on, and they said that I should come in, and Dr. Farhart could check and see what I should do.
As I walked out the door, I felt as if every WalMart employee watched me go. They probably did.

I went up with John to the doctor's while the family waited down in the hospital. Based on the description of my symptoms, and the fact that I had been having contractions for 8 hours, the staff took me right in, and I was seen quickly.

Dr. Farhart delivered the news... Laughter. My heart sank even further than it had been all morning. I dreaded what he was about to say. Laughter could only mean one thing, I was not in labor.

Through the laughter, Dr. Farhart told me, I cannot believe you are just sitting here, telling me you think you are in labor, and you are currently 8 cm dialated! Let's go have a baby!

OMG. FINALLY!

I.was.so.relieved.

But then relief  turned to panic, when it dawned on me that I might miss my window to get an epidural. {another thing about baby number 2... yes, yes, yes, I WILL be getting an epidural!}

Miss confident all morning that I had plentyyyyy of time before I had to get to the hospital, suddenly felt the extreme need to get down there and make sure I could get drugs! Ha ha. 

I got in to my room, set up to monitors, had a quick double thought that maybe I could make it without an epidural, after all, I made it to an 8 what was 2 more centimeters?, but that thought quickly passed, when I thought about pushing that baby out without anything to dull it. Hmmm, epidural please?! And I was ready. Waiting to meet that sweet boy.
And waiting.....waiting.....waiting.....

I stalled at an 8.
SO close....yet so far. So ensues some more waiting...

10:30...Tiff and Kim arrived..{because of all the urgency in the doctor's office, I was sure I would have this baby within the next couple hours!}

11:30 passed...

Kyle came to keep John company ;)

(notice Opa waiting it out over there, hehe)

12:30 passed...

My dad came during lunch break...

1:30 passed...

 Dad went back to work :(

2:30....

I was glad I had that epidural.....

3:30... YES! We have made it to a 10!

Time.To.Push!!!!!!!

Everyone scurried around, getting everything set for baby, and amidst all the shuffle I had my eyes set on that sweet little hat, ready underneath the baby incubator {not sure the technical name hehe}

and I could not wait to meet my son!  

10 minutes and 4 pushes later, at exactly 3:53 PM--my boy Wyatt James made his entrance into this world.

9 lbs 12 oz

22 inches long.

Wait let's go back over that weight. NINE pounds TWELVE ounces? Did I mention the little prayer I said, thankful I had that epidural?!

John texted everyone that Wyatt was born, and how big he was, and they really thought he was joking. Hehe. Nope, God gave me a sweet, gentle giant.

So....That is the story of my baby boy's birth.

It's not textbook...

It's not traditional...

and it's not anything I ever expected.

But I will tell you one thing it is.

It was God's plan for my life, and for the start of my sweet boy's life.

And I could not be more thankful.

Thankful for a healthy pregnancy,

for a comical labor,

for a smooth delivery,

for the life of my amazing

adorable

sweet

sweet

boy.

FOR MY FAMILY.



Happy Birthday my sweet son. I love you more than you will ever know.