Past and Present

I've gotten a little behind in my blogging, so this will be a little bit of catch up. First of all - I'm LOVING my little boy. He's the sweetest little thing and I love being a mommy to a newborn. On the other hand, I'm going a little crazy being a mommy to my girls. They are taking turns being extremely dramatic and emotional. But, all in all, we are doing very well and I'm quite happy currently - stressed at times, but happy nonetheless. :) My mom and sister came to visit and help last week - they flew in on the 30th and left on April 4th. The plan was that they would be here in time for the birth, since my induction was to be on the 31st, but Jacob had other plans and they missed it. But, the good part was that I got to spend more time with them once I was out of the hospital. They were a big help and stress reliever - they took the girls out to the park or library every day, giving me some much needed quiet time with just me and the baby. Wonderful! This past week we also had dinners brought to us everyday, which was also wonderful! LOVE family and good friends!

To back track just a bit - Ben and I had our 7th anniversary on March 30th! - since we knew the baby was coming, we celebrated early on Saturday, the 28th. Ben's parents kept the kids and we ate out at the most amazing place - Quiessence Restaurant at South Mountain in Phoenix. It's located on a farm where they grow their own produce - their menu changes nightly depending on what is in season and it was so good! Ben and I love to eat out and try new and fun restaurants and this one was one of the best we've been to. In retrospect, this dinner out became our 'last supper' of sorts, since we ended up having the baby the next day. It was incredibly good timing, really, because Ben's parents kept the girls overnight that night to give us a bit of a break for our anniversary. So, we went to church without our kids the next morning (and can I say that Sacrament meeting is sooo different without kids?!) and then during Gospel Doctrine I was suspicious that my water may have broken and was slowly leaking (no big gush, thank goodness!), so we left church and went to the hospital (with a quick stop at home to grab our bags and change out of our church clothes) - once at the hospital my contractions started coming very regularly, about 2-3 minutes apart and were getting progressively uncomfortable. I got my epidural and we eventually were greeted by a grumpy-faced Jacob at 6:02 that evening. :) The whole thing went very smoothly and with the kids already across town with Ben's family, it was so very convenient to go into labor. :)

And in honor of Ben and my 7th anniversary, you are lucky enough to see some of our engagement pictures. Look how cute and little we are! I was 19 and Ben was 21 when we got married, so yes, we were little. I love my Ben so much. I'm a lucky girl.




So, switching gears to more current activities - yesterday morning the girls had their first Easter egg hunt with a bunch of friends. Becca was too little last year to really enjoy this much, so this was really fun for her. She did well and collected as many eggs as her big sister.





Becca's birthday is tomorrow (Sunday, the 12th) and she is turning TWO! Ben has to work tomorrow so we celebrated it yesterday. We went to Chucky Cheese for dinner (not my favorite place, but for Becca this was heaven!) - afterwards she opened presents and had cake at home. What a cute 2 year old she's become. Yes, she's begun the terrible 2 phase (ie: recently caught coloring with crayon on the flat screen tv - thankfully it came off), but she's also extremely loving and motherly. She loves her little brother and her big sister. She's very orderly and enjoys putting things in their place and staying clean - she signs clean to me often if she needs something wiped up. She also comes to me when her diaper needs changing and says "poo" and pats her diaper - that always makes me giggle.






The ride above was her favorite - she rode it like 6 times.


The Hunter's joined us for birthday festivities - Craig climbed up through the tubes with the kids and into this little car - Emma, Craig and Addy are peering down giving their cheesy grins. :)





Today has been rainy and gloomy outside - we were going to go to another Easter egg hunt at Ben's school this morning, but we were deterred by the wet weather and stayed home instead. This afternoon, however, we cheered ourselves up by spending some time dying Easter eggs - this was messy but fun! My fingers are currently a little bluish-green.