Welcome to Our Family

On March 31 of this year we welcomed Bryelle Addison to our family (pronounced Bree-el). Bree, one of her nicknames, was 9 pounds, and 21.2 inches long.

On the morning of her arrival we were fast asleep when the phone rang, it was the hospital asking us if we would like to come in and have a baby. You see, I was scheduled to go to the hospital at 2am to be induced, but the night before the hospital called and said they were more than a day behind, thus I would probably be waiting at least another day until I could come in to be induced. At a week over due, waiting another day did not really seem to matter, so getting the 7am wake up call was a surprise. We arrived at the hospital at 10, got checked in by 11, I got some antibiotics, then around 12:30 they started the induction, but it wasn't until around 1:30 when contractions actually started. Labor was fairly easy going until about 4:30 when I felt like my body was being tortured. I thought back to my long labor with Karsten and said "there's no way I am enduring this kind of pain for 12+ more hours. When I was checked at 2:30 I was barely 3cm dilated so I figured I had quite a while to go. I asked for an epidural but I had to wait until I had a full IV of fluids and someone was free to do it. Around 5:00 the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural, it was in by 5:20, a few minutes later the nurse checked me, I was 9cm dilated, I pushed 1 time and I was 10cm, she called the doctor, and at 5:46 after 3 pushes during which I was blissfully drugged - hooray for epidurals - our little girl joined our family!

When we brought her home Karsten looked like a giant. I dropped off my cute tiny little toddler, had a baby, and got a baby and a giant toddler back....this I did not expect. Mommies should warn you that this will happen.

Since her arrival Bryelle has been a terrific baby! She sleeps pretty well, she only cries when Karsten is really bugging her or she is really hungry. She likes to sleep at night - amazing! Her labor was only 4 hours long - wow - and thank you kiddo. She nurses like a pro, also very cool. She is tons of fun to dress up, I love the accessories that I can put on her and all the super cute clothes...I know it sounds like I am a kid but it is so much fun to dress her up, boys kind of have basics when it comes to getting dress, pants or shorts and a shirt...I throw in a hat and shoes just because my kid likes those items.

Karsten is a good big brother, although he does get jealous. He loves to kiss her, hold her, and talk to her. He has tried to feed her, just the other day I caught him trying to shove cereal in her mouth...yikes. He loves to try and pick her up, not so good. He also likes to pretend he's the baby; he puts her binky in his mouth, steals her hair bow, tries to put on her pants and onesizes, steals her blankets, tries to move her over when she is nursing to see if it is "his turn" - which it is not. He is also very helpful. He will get her binkies for me, take her clothes to the laundry (he takes his there too), he pats her back to help me burp her, and helps in other ways too.

We love our new addition, it is as if she has been here much longer than 2 months. We hope you will get to meet her soon if you haven’t already.

Welcome the new addition

My little dou

Karsten, Grandpa, and "The Diva"

"Family"

On Easter we made a fairly sad attempt to quickly take family photos...sad...

Kids 2

Here we have some more pictures of the kiddos.

Let's play, match that commentary...

"Snuggie? Who needs a snuggie when you can look like this?"
"Ahhhh!"
"Yes, I am so darn cute, and I know it."
"Look mom, more sugar."
"Sleep, bring me sleep."

--The family picture, while not the best is rather entertaining even though I still look pregnant. :)

Kids 1

I have decided that I have been a really bad blogger, so I am trying to update the blog with pictures and stories. Wish me luck and here we go.

Bryelle I think was a bit mad at Karsten in one of the pictures...can you tell which one - lol.

Pictures

Pictures of Bryelle and the Fam

What we have been up to

Lots has been happening and I have been horrible at updating the blog - bad Julia.

Karsten is now a 18 and a half months old, growing by the day, about 29 or so pounds, and getting in lots of teeth...all the better to chomp with.

Karsten's favorite words include:
Apple
Mama
Dada
Cheese
Shoe
Pants
Sock (which sounds more like "soccc" because he is working on the K)
Down
Milk
All done
No
Banana (nana)
Ought oh
Eeewww
pee
purple
bear
baby
ball
Snack
Ba-ba
Bye-bye
Belly button
nose
ear
wow
hat
soft

He can say more words, those just happen to be current favorites. He is honestly a chatter box, but we love it. He is getting increasingly frustrated though when he knows he wants something, thinks he tells us, and we look at him like "huh?" Yep that leads to tempertantrums after we start asking him what he would like and going through lists of options.

We had a great holiday season filled with family and friends. For Thanksgiving we spent part of the day with Ryan's side of the family and part of the day with my side of the family. By the time we got home I was exhausted and Karsten was crabby. All in all we had a great day though.

For Christmas we spent Christmas eve with my family at my grandpa's house. Karsten played with his cousins and pretty much attempted to explore the entire house. He loved playing with his new stuff and getting lots of attention from everyone. We also enjoyed the time and seeing Karsten interact with his cousins was fun.

On Christmas day we went to Ryan's parent's house where we celebrated, Karsten played with his grandpa most of the day (spoiled), and we visited with everyone. We had a lot of fun with everyone and enjoyed relaxing.

In early-mid December we had a friend's Christmas party that we loved. We had a house full of kiddos and friends. The kids could play and do crafts, there was lots of food, and plenty of conversation. We think we will have to make this an annual event or at least have these more often.

For New Year's Eve we celebrated with our friend's the Cox Family. We had a ton of fun playing video games, watching moves, snacking, and watching our kiddos enjoy staying up. We rang in the new year with a joyful evening.

For New Year's day we had Ryan's family over and watched football and had some yummy food. The girls watched a movie and Karsten enjoyed all the attention he got.

After the holidays Julia pretty much began preparing to teach for the semester....and was not heard from again...lol. We had a busy few weeks getting ready for the semester and completing some contract work. Julia also took 2 classes in the late-fall term that she was able to finish. Dreamweaver was a class on web-development and EDU-250 was a required course to become "certified" to teach at the local community college. Both classes were fun but I got to see exactly what my students encounter when they take on classes, a full time job, a kid, being pregnant, and having a husband you love. I did prove to myself that soemtimes students complain for no reason, but also also proved to myself how vital a solid support system is in order to be successful.

At present we are expecting the arrival of our little girl in about 7 weeks, give or take a few weeks (in case she decides to come late or early). We have not picked a name, we haven't even narrowed down the choices -- bad parents. We have looked at names though, nothing has stood out or felt right like it did with Karsten.

For Christmas Ryan painted the new nursery, the upstairs second bath, the upstairs hallway, and the stairwell (he was super busy). It looks GREAT. Our little one's room is painted a purple-blue called "Eyeore" modeled after the Disney character. We really like it. I didn't want to paint the room pink, even though I like that color. I just couldn't picture sitting in a pink room nursing a baby. Pink was the color of the in-school suspension room in my high school and even though I never went in there it just left a bad feeling about pink rooms in my mind.

For Christmas Ryan also got me a pregnancy pillow, I call it my nest. It is awesome. Basically it is a giant body pillow that wraps around me.

The other day I pulled out the box of baby clothes that I have been saving from when Karsten was a newborn. I pulled out some outfits that don't look overwhelmingly like boy clothes and put them out to wash this week. I realized that we have a lot of blue and boy clothes and not so much nuetral stuff. Odd how baby clothes start to take on very gender-based looks when you are trying to decide if it would look okay on your daughter after your son wore it.

I went and registered at Babys R Us, while doing so I realized that Pampers started putting DriMax stuff in all of their diapers, this was very disappointing. I loved the swaddler diapers when Karsten was a baby but after the diapers with DriMax cause him to be so sensitive and have burns, I am very afraid of putting that kind of diaper on another child. Bad Pampers! While registering though I saw so many cute clothes, blankets, etc. it was really hard to resist the temptation to start buying stuff rather than registering for things. All the bows, flowers, little dresses....just made me feel like I was 10 again and having the time of my life playing.

I am convinced that my body is "done" being pregnant at this point though. This pregnancy has brought swelling of my legs and feet, which I did not get with Karsten until after I gave birth -- it sucks. To all you ladies who swell during pregnancy, my heart goes out to you. My hips feel like they are breaking apart when I walk, this really sucks and makes the whole waddling thing just annoying. I have found Tums really do work in combatting leg and foot cramps - thanks for the advice Facebook friends and my OB. In the last trimester I have started having food cravings...like salsa and milk...seperately but those I want fairly often. Pregnancy is just a strange period of life - well worth the outcome in my opinion, but still an odd journey. I think everyone should get to experience pregnancy in groups of friends, this makes it much more bearable in my opinion. While the teens who make pregnancy packs are nuts (in my opinion), the idea is smart, it is the age that is insane.

Anyhow, I hope all of you reading this are doing well.

Pictures will follow soon.

Recipes from the Party

In December we had a wonderful party with some of our friends in Arizona. As promised here are some of the recopies that were shared (see below). Thanks to all those who came and enjoyed the season with us!

Main Course
Turkey recipe can be found at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/perfect-roast-turkey-recipe4/index.html

Stuffing - I “made” some stuffing but unfortunately I “stuffed” the fridge too full and when Ryan opened it…well it fell out…but it looked good, and after a nice “pregnant” cry I decided that I would live if I didn’t have it out for everyone to try, but it you want to make it here you go: http://www.food.com/recipe/pumpkin-stuffed-with-everything-good-441302


Sweet Potato Pie (that was the thing that had the nuts on top): http://southernfood.about.com/od/sidedishcasseroles/r/bl90911u.htm

Ham – I bought a spiral cut ham, re-heated, then glazed with a Dijon and fig preserve glaze. If you are interested in the recipe it is from Paula Deen’s Sons and was featured in the 2009 Food Network Magazine December Issue - http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/fig-and-orange-glazed-ham-recipe/index.html

Green Salad/Mixed Greens – thank you to Lori and Tyler Hamelwright

Appetizers
Spinach-Artichoke Dip – Compliments of Kristal and Chance Tyler and the 2010 December issue of the Food Network Magazine: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/almost-famous-spinach-artichoke-dip-recipe/index.html

Bread – Compliments of the Riley Family (Joy and Randy) and the Wildflower Bread Company, I think it was the Rosemary Sea Salt loaf, but someone can correct me if I am wrong. http://www.wildflowerbread.com/bread/

Cream Cheese–Pesto Dip – Compliments of Emily and Mike Cox; to prepare take a bar of cream cheese, slice in half, place in a corning-wear or similar baking-serving dish, heat to 320-400 degrees to melt, pull out of oven, cover with pesto sauce (green was used but I think you could sub sun-dried tomato too), sprinkle parmesan cheese on top (preferably grated), place back in oven to warm, then serve with sliced pieces of baguette bread. **I have also seen Emily make this with Brie cheese and serve with small grape tomatoes, also very tasty.

All of the produce, rolls, shrimp, etc was purchased at Fry’s including the Tiger Shrimp.


Dessert

Chocolate and White Chocolate Chip cookies – were brought by Amber and Tyler DeWitt, I do not have the recipe.

Sugar Cookies – compliments of Kristal and Chance Tyler as well as the Worldwide Ward Christmas Cookbook – I somehow misplaced the recipe for this one (silly me).

Brownies with Peppermint topping – from Mike and Emily Cox, http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/12/peppermint-candy-cane-brownies.html

Chocolate Silk Pie – compliments of Bobby and Claudia Schumacher

Thanks ----
To everyone who came, brought food, enjoyed food, etc thank you so much! If I have inadvertently left something off the list or failed to include something, I truly apologize, please send me an email and I will post it up – my memory does fail me.

Happy New Years to all and we hope to see you all again very soon!