I love having a girl because...

I can have her wear cute little bows like the one on this site. Check it out- http://thecraftymoms.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-11-03T19%3A47%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=1. It is so fun dressing McKall up.

Little Princess

McKall is now six weeks old and as sweet as can be. She has a very mellow temperament and is very alert looking at what is going on around her. She has gained a lot of weight, most of it her cute chunky little cheeks. She is sleeping well at night, which her mommy likes. She is going to be one tough cookie with her brother around. He hasn't done anything too awful to her (yet) but he still doesn't quite get that he needs to be gentle. Today I was in the other room and McKall suddenly started crying. I deciphered the cry as " Hayden has done something to me that I don't like." Sure enough when I walked into the room Hayden had his look of I know I have done something that I shouldn't (head down, eyes rolled up looking at me), and McKall had a sticker stuck to her forehead. Could have been worse. This is her looking so adorable in her blessing dress. I love the back of her little head. All that hair! She is getting a bald spot or should I say bald strip around her head, so I hope her hair stays! Babies always have the funniest hairlines. I love this sweet little girl.

Poinsettia Bowl

To end the football season off right, Mike was able to go to the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. He went with a friend and his son and nephew. He had a lot of fun, despite BSU losing by one point!

The game was the day before Christmas Eve, and they were flying home on Christmas Eve. I was sure I was going to be husbandless on Christmas Eve, and to be honest I thought possibly Christmas day, because of the bad weather. They were flying home through Seattle and Portland - where there were lots of delays and cancellations. But Mikey pulled through and even got home earlier than planned. This was due to the misfortune of others missing their connecting flights due to the weather, so they were able to get on an earlier flight. I think Mike had the feeling that he may not make it home either because on Christmas morning I got to open up a new Kitchen Aid, which Mike went way over his allowed budget for. Isn't it is great to get a guilt gift!

Crazy Hayden

We have been working on potty training Hayden. He went potty on the toilet and got to go to one of his favorite places... Chuck E. Cheese. Even though it is one of his favorites, he does not like it when the "real" Chuck E. comes out. He was clinging to Mike with all he had. I felt bad for him, but it was pretty funny. We hyped up going to Chuck E. Cheese if he went on the toilet, so the other day I was going to the bathroom and Hayden got really excited, clapped and said "Yeah!!! You went pee-pee Mommy, you get to go to Chuck E. Cheese!" Yes, there is no privacy in this house!

The other night Hayden was walking around the house with these play glasses on. He was so darn cute!

Snow!!

We have been getting lots of snow! Hayden had so much fun helping Mike shovel the driveway and throwing snow on him. Mike showed him that he could eat the snow and he thought it was so funny. He came into the house laughing and thinking it was so neat. He kept saying "I eat the snow Mommy," and laughing.

Finally

Because of being on bedrest, and having McKall (so basically a lack of contact with the outside world for two months) I may be a little late on celebrating this, but I filled up my car today for $20.67. This is amazing because the last time I filled up my car it was three times as much. I hope it stays low like this. I remember in high school I had a little Toyota Tercel that I could fill up for $10.00 (gas was $.99) and I could go forever in that little car! Ahhhhhhhh, wouldn't that be nice again.

The most wonderful time of the year

The past couple of weeks have gone so fast as we have been adjusting to having McKall here. She is the sweetest baby ever. I just love her so much. Most of my day is spent keeping Hayden off of her because he also loves her so much. It is so sweet to watch him with her, but I am also afraid to have them be alone together. So, I am constantly saying "Hayden where are you," or "What are you doing." He loves to give her kisses and rub his little nose and face on hers, or give her toys to play with. He has only tried to pick her up once, but he learned fast it was not ok. He is a big helper when it comes to changing her diaper and feeding her (which is happening a lot!) I am happy to say that McKall has been much easier than Hayden was. She is an easier baby, but I think that Mike and I were just crazy not knowing what the heck we were doing with Hayden.

Mike and Hayden put Christmas lights up on the house. Hayden had fun "helping" his daddy. He really wanted to climb up on the roof!

I took Hayden to the night light parade. When the floats were coming he kept saying "Whoa," and "they keep coming and coming!" He had so much fun. Mike stayed home with McKall so Mommy and Hayden could have some time together since I have been a bit more busy these days!

Mike and Hayden went on a tree hunting adventure to find the perfect tree! They picked out a beautiful tree. We had fun putting it up together, and Hayden was fascinated by the lights. Our house smells so yummy too.

Welcome Baby McKall

McKall Lydia Marshall, 11-26-08, 5 lb. 8 oz., 18 inches long. We are so excited to have McKall here with us! The labor and delivery went very well and she is a happy, healthy baby! She has dark hair, which surprised us all. Hayden is in love with her and wants to help us with changing her diaper and feeding her. He loves to give her kisses and asks to hold her. He is a typical two year old around her, aka... a bull in a china store... so we have to watch him pretty close when they are together. She is such a sweet baby and so adorable on top of it! It is so fun to finally have her here. I have had problems loading pics on this blog, so I will be adding more pics later, but I got this one to load so I thought I would go ahead with out the rest.... so keep checking if you are interested in seeing more!

A little early

I know that Thanksgiving hasn't even passed, but I thought I would change my blog to Christmas now since I will be occupied with McKall soon. Plus, I already had my Thanksgiving on Sunday since I will be in the hospital on Thursday. So there!

The day is....

Tuesday! I am being induced Tuesday (probably later at night) and will have her on Wednesday! I am still waiting to hear from the doctor on when to check into the hospital, but that is the plan so far. I spent an exhausting Thursday at three doctors/hospital appointments to determine this. First, I had my regular appointment with my doctor. She did an ultrasound and McKall was behind in growth and the doc found a few other things that she was looking for to determine if I needed to be induced. The doctor wanted to determine if I needed to be induced that day, or if we could wait, so she sent me to the hospital to do a non-stress test and have blood work done. That determines if the baby is under any type of stress at all. After being strapped up and poked the baby was was fine. Then she called the maternal fetal specialist to see if she would squeeze us in to do another ultrasound and other readings that my doc can't do with her machine. So we headed there and got to see McKall again. The specialist also determined that she was not growing like they would like to see and decided she needed to come out, but she didn't feel it was an emergency, so we will be headed in on Tuesday. They estimated her to be 5 something (it was a long day!) pounds. So she will be a little thing like Hayden. Please have us in your thoughts and pray that she will be healthy! We are very excited and it is nice to finally have an end to the bed rest.

Update

So, I haven't been doing much of anything interesting to write about. I could tell you what the walls look like and how many movies I have watched, and how I have searched everything on the Internet that I can think of.... but it is boring enough for me so I won't subject you to my boredom. Actually, bed rest has been going ok. I am so thankful to all who have helped with Hayden, meals, cleaning, and those who have just called or stopped by to say "hi." I think we are going to get through this!! I had a doc appointment on Thursday and everything is going well. Darn it, the bed rest is working! We were hoping that she would say I could resume my normal life, but no such luck. She did say that it is likely that I will be induced at 38 weeks. So, that is only a few weeks away. That could change of course, so I right now I am just trying to make it appointment to appointment to check the progress. I go back next Thursday... so hopefully more news then. I extended my bed rest to my friends house and had my baby shower last Saturday. I was spoiled with so many cute things and the cuteness keeps coming from those who could not make it to the shower. All I can say is I love pink, purple and everything girly!! This little girl is not going to be in a clothing or hair bow deficit. I got four beautiful handmade quilts. I know such talented people.

Check this out!

I found this quilt giveaway on a friends blog. The quilts are amazingly beautiful and you can enter to win too. Click here and enter away! Good luck... but I hope I win! Here is the quilt I picked.

My little cowboy

Here is my sweetie all dressed up for Halloween! He was so darn cute. He went trick-or-treating to a few houses, but I don't think he was quite sure about it. I wasn't sure that he was going to wear the cowboy hat, but he was really good about it. The funniest thing was when he tried to walk in the boots... they were really stiff and hard to walk in, so he looked pretty silly. He ended up not wearing them.

What we have been doing

Along with my expert quilting friend, Anjela, I made a quilt for Hayden's new big boy bed and room. It was a lot of fun learning how to make it. I have only tied quilts before, so this was a whole new experience for me. It was a lot of work, but well worth it! Thanks to the help from Anjela, we finished it the day before I was put on best rest. Thankgoodness! Hayden loved helping with it too. He would ask me if I was going to work on the "fagrit" (fabric) all of the time and he was so excited to put it on his bed. We went to the pumpkin patch with some friends. Hayden has been obsessed with pumpkins this year so he had so much fun finding his pumpkin and going on a hay ride. Mike gets together with his high school buddies every year to play football. Here are all of the kiddos. Every year this picture multiplies!

It also snowed while we were there! Hayden played outside and loved it! Here are the boys before their game started.

Uggggh!

I have been put on bed rest. Not too happy about it, but I know that this is what needs to happen right now. I have Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (my blood pressure keeps getting high through the pregnancy). This can cause the baby to stop growing. She is fine now... measuring where she should, so the bed rest will hopefully help her to keep growing the way she should. I had this with Hayden and he was only 5 pounds when they induced me around 37 weeks. I didn't have to do bed rest with Hayden though. Different doctor, different ways? So, hopefully she will be bigger than he was. I have cried a couple of rivers over this, but I think I am sorta coming to terms that this is what I will be doing for the next 4-6 weeks. I just hate asking for help, but I am grateful for the friends and family members who are willing to help Mike and I with Hayden and things around the house. It is hard for me to have people clean my house and to send Hayden away, but he will probably love it! He loves playing with friends and being with his grandparents. As for me, I will be reading lots of blogs, and books and watching lots of TV and movies. For Mike's sake I will also try not to be a pain from the couch or bed as I watch my house go crazy! I am so lucky to have my sweet Mike. This is not going to be easy for him, but he has been really good about it.