Snow Day!

We had our first snow of the year last night. It wasn't much but of course Mahayla was excited to play in it. We didn't go out last night so I got woken up by a very excited 3 year old at 7am. I made her eat some breakfast and we were outside before 8:30. Here are a few pictures of use...when did I start looking so old?

We also went and saw Santa today at Redmond Town Center. The girls did great but it was SOOOO cold out. It is supposed to be in the lower 30's and upper 20's all week long!

Christmas Crafts

Since Kellah was born I find getting out of the house much more difficult so we are not going out as often as we were before. This causes a bit of a problem because Mahayla gets borred so instead of being Take You Fun Places Mom I have to be Fun Craft Mom. This isn't really my forte but I am working on it (Note the snowflakes on the sliding glass door). I found this cute little book about Christ's birth and it came with some blank stickers of the nativity scene that the kids can color so Mahayla spent some time coloring them yesterday.

Mahayla in her sassy new boots!

Our Tree

We don't make much of a tradition out of getting our tree I guess because we already do so much during the holidays. There is a Home Depot down the street from our house and they trim off the bottom branches, cut of the bottom a little bit and put a net around it so it makes the whole process pretty darn easy. Maybe as the kids get older and we get a bigger car, we'll go cut down our own tree. We do have a great time decorating it as well as the rest of the house.

These pictures absolutely crack me up. Mahayla was laughing hysterically when I was taking them so Kellah was a bit annoyed.

A new tradition

Ever since Mahayla was a little baby she has been obsessed with the Nutcracker. Even when she was just nine months old she would stop everything she was doing and crawl towards the TV when a commercial came on. This year my Aunt Klair was able to get tickets at a really good price so my Mom and I took the girls to The Nutcracker last week. Miss Kellah wasn't really enjoying the play too much so Mom spent the majority of the time outside while Mahayla and I watched the play...thanks Mom!

Mahayla really loved it and I have to say I was really impressed. The dancing was obviously wonderful and the set was so darn pretty. We will definitely be doing this again next year!

Miss Kellah Mae

Kellah is getting so big already! One of the nice things about her being our second baby is that we know how quickly each stage goes so we are really enjoying it. She is such a happy baby and has such a huge smile that you can't help but smile back at her. She also loves, loves, loves to talk so the majority of her awake time is spent in serious conversation :)

Are you having trouble viewing pictures?

A couple of you told me that you couldn't view the pictures on my blog. I couldn't figure out what the problem was until I saw it from my Mom's computer. It looks like the emails updating you on new posts are directing you to the google group and not my actual blog. The google group is used to send updates only. Until I figure out how to fix this problem please just save the link to our blog in your favorites so when you get an email you can just get to the site that way.

Here is the link:

http://blackwhitelovedallover.blogspot.com/

A few new pictures

Mahayla in a towel Aunt Holly gave her.

I love those eyes!

Speaking of eyes, why does Kellah always do this? I love those little lips and cheeks.

Kellah's newest obsession....her tounge!

The Ghost of Christmas Past

First Christmas

Second Christmas

Last Year

I was looking through old pictures yesterday and I seriously wanted to CRY! How did my little girl get so dang big?

Trick or Treat

This was the first year that I have taken Mahayla trick or treating here. She's been once at my Dad's but last year we were at the church festival and her first Halloween she was just a baby so we obviously didn't take her. Greg had to work at a football game so I took the girls to my friend Danielle's parents house since they live in a huge neighborhood up the street. I had Kellah in her new fleece sling (Thanks Beth!) and I think she got more attention than the kids!

Apparently my kids look alike...Part Two

I've been going through some old pictures and I couldn't believe the similarities!

Mahayla:



Kellah:

La Leche Leauge Video

I thought this video was really neat. I didn't realize that the LLL was formed by Mothers just helping other Mothers...What a beautiful thing!

Apparently my kids look alike...

I honestly haven't seen tons of resemblence between Mahayla and Kellah but everywhere I go people are telling me they look alike. I guess I just look at Kellah and see the ways that she doesn't look like Mahayla. So here is a comparision...The first one is of Mahayla at six weeks and the second one is of Kellah at five weeks.

Pumpkin Carving with Daddy

We went to a great little pumpkin farm this weekend with some family and Mahayla picked out a great big pumpkin for her and Daddy to carve. It took forever but I think the finished product is pretty good!

The World's Cutest Ghost

I picked up this cute hat the other day at the Dollar Spot at Target because it was obviously too cute to resist. To complete the outfit I made some Baby Legs out of some Halloween socks that my Mom brought over. I think the finished product is pretty adorable.

Update on us

I can't believe a month has passed already! The days seem long sometimes but, man, the weeks sure do fly by! We are adjusting well to having two kids, in fact, we are loving it! Kellah is a great little baby and to our surprise she is a great little sleeper unlike her big sister. Mahayla is doing pretty well at adjusting to being a big sister. She really loves her little sissy and thinks that all her baby talk and faces are quite funny. It's been a little harder for her to adjust to not having all the attention so we are dealing with some bad behavior but I really expected that for the most part. She really gets upset when Greg is giving the baby attention so we have decided that he will come home and give her about 15-20 minutes of undivided attention before he holds the baby. It's helped a little bit so hopefully it will continue to get better.

Kellah is the sweetest little girl and is already bigger than her sister was at this age which is due to the fact that she eats CONSTANTLY. I am not looking forward to her growth spurts as she already eats every 90 minutes. One really fun thing about Kellah is that she smiled the night we brought her home, we thought it was just a fluke incident but she is smiling more and more and is now doing much more cooing which is one of my absolute favorite things in the world.

Kellah Mae Sylvia Jones

On Friday I went in to see my midwife at about 2pm. She did a stretch and sweep to see if we could get things going but we scheduled me to come back in at 7pm that night to break my water since I was 5 days overdue and the baby was low enough. I went back home and Mahayla and I walked around our neighborhood about 5 times to see if we could get things going. I was starting to feel a little crampy but nothing crazy was going on so we went in to pack Mahayla's bag so she would be ready for her stay at Auntie and Shaya's house for the weekend. I did a bunch of last minute cleaning and chores and then my Mom got to my house so she could stay with Mahayla until my sister arrived. Greg got home around 6:15 so he got ready, ate some dinner and we took off.

When we got to the birth center they were lighting candles and getting the room ready. At about 7:20 they broke my water and things started moving along. I was able to work through the first part of the contractions pretty well by sitting on the exercise ball and using one of the candles as a focal point. I had put together good playlist and Greg made me some CD's so listening to the music really helped me to concentrate as well as Greg applying counter pressure on my lower back. My Mom arrived at about 8:30 and did whatever she could to help me feel comfortable. I went through those managable contractions until about 9pm then they got more intense and it was a little harder to remain calm. I stayed in that position until about 10 o'clock when I got into the jacuzzi tub. The tub felt great but I was still in some major pain. Greg was awesome coaching me through each contraction and my Mom was applying cold wash cloths to my face, neck and back depending on what position I was in. By around 10:30 I was not a happy camper and began begging for an epidural My midwife informed me that my statement probably meant that I was ready to push so I tried to do so through my next contraction but I just couldn't get into the right position so I decided to get out and got on the birthing stool.

I cannot begin to describe the kind of pain I was in at this point. I was caught between being in so much pain that I just wanted the baby out and being afraid to push because of the pain. I pushed through about 3 contractions and felt like I wasn't getting anywhere (Again, fellow mothers will understand this) but I was finally able to push her to crown and then I entered my own personal hell called "The Ring of Fire" I literally felt like the lower half of my body had spontaneously combusted...NOT fun! I promptly pushed her head out and felt a sense of relief until I was told that I still had to push her shoulders out. At this point I started yelling at everyone around me to just take her out because I could not do it. Greg kept trying to encourage me and let me know that she was right there and that she was so pretty. He was so cute....already in love with her before she was fully born! Obviously, I made it past that point and pushed her out with the next contraction. She was born at 11:16 so that was about 4 hours of labor....MUCH better than the 19 hours I had with Mahayla.

Once I delivered her they handed her right to me and she didn't make a peep as I held her. She just hung out and got used to being in a new place. I think that my midwife was a bit concerned that she wasn't making any noise but as soon as Greg cut the cord and I handed her off she let out a huge wail. I delivered the placenta then somehow made it over to the bed where I just sat absolutely zoned out for about 30 minutes. When I finally had the strength to speak and actually hold her Greg brought her over to me and she began nursing like a champ! We hung out at the birth center for about 3 hours while they checked out the baby and watched me and my Mom went and got Greg and I some food. At about 2:30 am we left and headed home. It was so great to spend our first night in our own bed with no one to bother us!

Here is our sweet girl:

Kellah Mae Sylvia Jones

Born: September 19 at 11:16 pm

Weight: 7 lbs 12.5 oz

Height: 21 inches

Not so fashionably late

It appears that our baby has decided that she is not ready to enter the world yet. My due date came and went yesterday with no sign of her arrival. I am pretty disappointed but I also know how much work these kids are once they are born so I'm trying to not let it upset me too much. I'm just going to get in some one on one time with Mahayla while I can and get some last minute stuff done around the house. My biggest concern is this baby staying healthy and I'm also hoping that she won't get TOO huge!

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go...

Well I have FOUR days left until my due date. I would love it if this baby would make an early appearance but I really just don't want to go past my due date, that would definitely not make for a happy Mama. I have been doing all sorts of nesting and Greg has painted both our bedroom and Mahayla's bedroom. Thanks to Craigs list and Freecycle I have literally spent no out of pocket money because I sold a bunch of our stuff and then got loads of stuff for free off of the two sites. Here are a few pictures of our room:

I still need to put some finishing touches on the walls and decor on the dressers but that can wait!


Apparently I am not the only one that is ready for this little girl to get out. She is a mover and a shaker that is for sure! You have to be a little patient there is definitely some major movement going on.

The other day I was at a friends house and we decided to straighten our girls hair. I can't believe how different Mahayla looked!

I am trying to keep myself busy so that I don't go nuts while I'm waiting for this kid to be born. Yesterday Mahayla and I had a Mommy/Daughter date and went and got our pictures taken. You can view them here:

http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/pn/tpp/claim?em=kattiedewall@hotmail.com&acc=59945a75d7

Access Code: 59945a75d7
Email: kattiedewall@hotmail.com
PW: gregjones

One of the things that I love about delivering at a birth center is that I can bring Mahayla to the appointments and she really gets to be a part of it. I never feel like she is in the way or unwelcome. She LOVES to hear the heartbeat and talks about it all the time. I really think she is going to be a great big sister! Every morning she tells me that she loves her baby sister and she gives her kisses. She knows all about the "hospital" and that we are going there to get her sister. When I was packing my bag she asked me if it was the bag I was taking to get her sister. I have NO idea how she knew that! Here is a picture of her "helping" at my last appointment:




Well, this should be my last post before we have the baby. Wish us luck!