Growing UP!

I have two kids.  WOW!  It's so crazy to think that I am already the mother of two beautiful little kids and even crazier to see how fast they are growing.  I feel so blessed to have my precious little Colton and Katie.  They (and my wonderful Jon) mean everything to me! 

Here are the kids sporting their new Deere gear :)  These were gift from Jon's managers.

Colton with his Deere tractor!

Katie in her new Deere shirt!

Colton is almost two years old!!  It's so crazy!  He is 22 1/2 months and acts every bit the part of a two year old.  He is full of energy and loves to run around and he especially loves being chased.  Whenever we have other kids around he is always trying to get them to chase him.  He is a total daddy's boy.  He loves when Jon comes home and is always in a better mood when he's around.  I'd like to say I have no idea why cause I'm so much fun- but let's be honest- Jon is way more fun with Colton.  He is always playing silly games and running around and rough housing with him.  Colton loves it!  Colton also loves being outside and being pushed in the swing.  He likes coloring, cars, tractors, and pretty much all boy stuff.  Lately he has to have a car in each hand in order to go to sleep.  It's pretty cute.  He loves his shows- a trait he learned from his father- and is starting to be interested in movies that are actually semi-entertaining for adults as well.  This is a huge relief because I'm getting REALLY sick of Curious George! Lately he's really liked "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Ice Age II".  He was totally cracking up at the part where the sloth's take Sid to their camp and then copy everything he does cause they think he's the fire king.   He is still a super picky eater- which is very frustrating- but I keep telling myself that at least he really likes fruit and that the bread and crackers I give him are fairly healthy.  HOPEFULLY one day he won't be so picky...

Playing golf with daddy.

Like father, like son. :)

"Helping" me make brownies...

Katelyn is just an adorable little doll.  She is so sweet!  She hardly ever cries and is always smiling.  She loves to coo and be vocal with you.  She will get in little "cooing wars" with you.  It's super cute!  Her eyes are starting to turn brown and that's pretty cool to watch.  She has slept through the night once- and I'm hoping will again soon!!  Normally she'll go about 6 hours.  All in all she is a pretty content baby.  She even takes a pacifier.  It's awesome!!  Colton never did and it was horrible not having a way to soothe him when he was upset but not hungry.   I love to hold and snuggle my little girl!  I definitely feel a special mommy-daughter connection. 

Katie on Mother's Day.

Both little sweethearts are sick this week and it hasn't been any fun.  When kids are sick mom doesn't get any sleep, doesn't get anything done, and feels pretty miserable herself- but the absolute worst part is not being able to make your kids feel better when they hurt!  I love my family so much and I feel so blessed that I have been given a goofy, athletic, caring, hard-working husband and two adorable, sweet, loving little kids :)

My forever family.

2 Months of Precious

Today our little angel is 2 months old!  It's crazy how fast she is growing up.  She is such a little sweetheart.  She steals our hearts with her smiles and is so fun to hold and play with.  She is an extremely content and mild little baby, which I am incredibly grateful for.  I think Heavenly Father knew I needed a mild baby (since I'd been praying for it my whole pregnancy) to help me not stress out and go crazy over the whole two kids thing.  Colton, bless his heart, has also been entering a bit of a terrible two's phase combined with being a complete daddy's boy.  I love that little boy with all my heart but I am so grateful right now to have a little sweetheart who loves her mommy and hardly ever cries!  She also loves baths, ever since the first one!

Big smiles since the beginning!! (4 wks old)

Little girls are so fun to dress up!

Katelyn's two month appointment went well for the most part.  She is healthy and growing, but we did have a bit of a scare.  Her left hip was popping and has ever since birth.  The pediatrician was worried it could be developmental hip displasia- which can cause problems with walking.  If she had it, she would have to be referred to a special doctor and have to wear a cast until the hip set correctly.  We took her in for an ultrasound this week to check for the condition.  She was such a little trooper!  She just laid on the hospital bed and looked around and kicked her legs, as content as can be, while the lady performed the ultrasound.  Friday we got a call back from the doctor to tell us that the ultrasound was normal and nothing is wrong with her hip!  Yay!!  Katie also had a bad reaction to her two month shots.  She cried during the shots (always so heart breaking!!) but then fell asleep and was fine for the next couple hours.  However, when she woke up she was screaming her head off.  It was time for her to eat and I tried to feed her but she would eat a for like 5 seconds and then pull off and scream again.  Her face was so red from screaming and it was horrible.  We finally found a position we could hold her in that didn't hurt her legs as much and it reduced her cry to a whimper but she was miserable for hours.  It was horrible seeing my little smiley, happy baby so upset and in pain!  The next morning when she woke up she was back to all smiles!  We are so grateful for our two healthy, beautiful little kids that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with!

Katie's Two Month Stats:

Height: 23" -- 94th percentile
Weight: 11lbs 3 oz -- 78th percentile
Head Circ: 39cm-- 86th percentile

Look at those cheeks!

LOVE this smile!

We've also been enjoying the weather warming up lately.  It's so fun to have a backyard I can take the kids into to enjoy the sunshine worry free!  Colton's a big fan of his sidewalk chalk and bubbles he got in his Easter basket!

Enjoying the weather!  He likes the deck much better than the sidewalk...

22 months old and smiling with food in his mouth :)

Katelyn's Baby Blessing

Our little Katie was blessed by her dad, Jonathan William Day, on April 21, 2013 in the Davenport 2nd Ward, Davenport- IA.  We named her Katelyn Emma Day.  Katelyn we just like the name of, it's a pretty name and we liked that it can easily be shortened, and Emma after my mom Emma Bingham Rider.  I got the first of my name "Emma"lee from my mom as well.  My mom inherited a broach from her grandma, Emma Rich, that was carried across the plains by one of our pioneer ancestors.  I'll get it from my mom someday, since I got her namesake, and then one day I'll give it to Katie, since she was named after my mom too- and me I guess.  Also, my mom is just an amazing, awesome lady and I wanted to name my daughter after her! 

We were happy that some of Jon's family was able to come down from MN to be with us for the baby blessing.  Jon's parents, his brother Phil and family, and his brother Mark and his wife Jenna all came.  It was fun to have family around for the weekend and great for Jon to have the support!  Jon, Phil, Mark, Paul, Bishop Snarr, Justin Thompson, Stake President Cropper, and the 1st and 2nd counselors in the bishopric Greg Bredthaur and Brother Galvon all stood in the circle.  It was kind of cool to have the whole bishopric and the Stake president participate even though I'm sure it made Jon kind of nervous.  Jon gave Katie a beautiful blessing, and Katie looked and acted like a little angel.  She didn't make a peep- just slept the whole time.  She wore a beautiful white blessing dress made by my mom, Emma. 

It was a great day all around!  We had a beautiful blessing for our sweet little girl, it was wonderful to have family in town, and the weather was great!  We all enjoyed sitting out on the deck and letting the kids play outside.  Colton was actually pretty sick on Sunday with a nasty cold but he toughed it out the best he could.  He is a trooper and a great big brother!

Notice how miserable poor Colton looks!

Katie with her parents.

Paul and the food. :)

Family :)

The Story of Katelyn Emma Day

Katelyn (Katie) Emma Day was born Tuesday, March 5th at 11:20am in the Trinity Bettendorf Hospital.  She weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and measured 20 inches long.  She was born with a head-full of dark hair, just like her mommy as a baby!  As nervous as we were to become parents of two, we loved our little girl immediately!

The Labor Story:

I was due with Katelyn on March 4th.  Colton had come four days late so I wasn't really expecting her to come early, and I wasn't really ready for her to come early either.  However, Jon had just rotated to a new job within Deere at the first of March and was told that the second week of March was going to be very busy and he wouldn't have much flexibility with time off.  I needed Jon to be there as much as possible so I really didn't want her to come late either.  Considering I am a huge planner who hates the unknown, the whole situation really stressed me out.  So, I set up an appointment to be induced on March 6th.  I liked the idea of letting her come on her on time but I needed Jon to be able to be there and not be busy with work.  That helped me de-stress a bit but I was still uncomfortable about the whole situation.  March 4th rolled around and nothing.  Not a single contraction.  I was super uncomfortable but I had no signs that the baby was coming anytime soon.  I went to the doctor for an NST on my due date and the nurse who was hooking me up to the monitors was talking to me about the weather, etc.  I joked that I was probably going to go into labor that night because there was supposed to be a big snow storm rolling in overnight and it was just my luck.  She said that she wouldn't be surprised because they tended to deliver a lot of babies during storms- something about the drop in barometric pressure causing women to go into labor.  I don't know if that is true or not but whether it was just a matter of luck or barometric pressure (or she was just ready all on her own) that night I woke up at 1:45am and felt a little weird.  I had the fleeting thought that maybe my water had broken but I brushed it off thinking it would be more obvious if it had and I closed my eyes to go back to sleep.  I lay there for about five minutes and finally decided I better get up and go to the bathroom just to make sure everything was ok.  When I got up all doubts went out the window.  It was QUITE the gush!  (Sorry if that's gross).  I had no doubt that my water had broken.  I woke Jon up and told him that my water had broken and we needed to go to the hospital.  He was completely disoriented and kept walking around in circles with a crazed look on his face.  Funny that I was the one who had to remain calm. 
We called a friend to come watch Colton and we headed to the hospital just as the snow was starting to fall.  By time we got to the hospital the contractions had started and were becoming pretty regular and painful.  We kept telling them that I wanted an epidural as soon as possible but they said they had to make sure I was really in labor first and that my water had really broken (even though I was positive it had).  Then they had to ask me all these medical history questions and contact the doctor and what seemed like a million other unimportant things.  My patience was all but lost when they finally called the anesthesiologist two hours later to come give me the epidural and then it took him an hour to get there because of the snow storm.  It was a very painful three hours but all was beautiful and I was able to get some sleep once I got the epidural.  Things started getting painful again once the pressure increased.  The doctor came in around 9am and said that everything was going great and I was more than half-way there, just progressing a little slowly.  She said that she had no doubt I'd get there on my own but if I wanted some pitocin to speed things up we could do that.  I asked if there was any risk and she said there really wasn't at this point and so I said, "Let's speed this baby up!"  A couple hours later I was at a 10 and after about half an hour of incredibly exhausting and painful pushing, our beautiful baby girl was born.  She had the cord wrapped around her neck but the doctor was extremely calm and fixed it really quickly and everything was alright! 

I gotta say, it might already be apparent, but I really do not like the whole labor and delivery process.  I don't feel like I am a wimp normally but I always feel like one during childbirth.  I hate the pain of it all but looking at my beautiful babies and holding them close- I know it's all worth it.  Babies are such a miracle from heaven and I know that the sweet spirits of our little Colton and Katelyn were sent to us special from our Heavenly Father. 

Pregnancy #2

Happy due date to me!  Today, March 4th, I am 40 weeks along with my second baby!  When she'll decide to make an appearance, who knows- but it'll be soon!  This little stinker has been super active the last month or so and likes to roll all over the place.  We are still feeling apprehensive about having a second baby but we're also tired of waiting to finally get to meet her.  We're finally ready to welcome baby #2, lets just hope we can handle it!

This pregnancy has been pretty good.  I didn't have high blood pressure this time, which I did with Colton, so that has been great!  I guess it's just boys that stress me out or something.  I did have some scares in the beginning with some subchoronial hemorrhages that burst.  It was pretty scary but everything was just fine in the end.  This pregnancy has also gone by SUPER fast compared to the last one and we feel a lot less prepared for this baby than we did for our first...which seems backwards.  Hopefully I can remember how to do everything and hopefully the labor+delivery+recovery go a lot smoother and faster than last time!  Fingers crossed!! 

I've gained about 36-37 pounds this pregnancy, about 11 less than last time so that's good I guess!  Again, it seems weird cause I exercised a lot more with the last pregnancy and my diet hasn't been any better or worse between the two.  I've just decided though that your body gains what it needs to gain.  As long as you're not sitting around being lazy and eating junk food or pigging out all the time cause you're "eating for two" then it doesn't really matter what you gain.  Hopefully gaining less this time means that it'll be easier to lose the baby weight afterwards.  Again, FINGERS CROSSED!!

Here's my progressions for baby #2.  Sorry some of the weeks are so sporadic.  I always forget to take the pictures!

15 weeks

19 weeks

21 weeks

22 weeks

24 weeks

28 weeks

33 weeks

36 weeks

37 weeks

38 weeks

39 weeks

40 weeks!!

40 weeks with Colton.

My Girly Baby Shower!

Saturday night, Feb. 16, 2013, some of my friends threw me a baby shower for my soon to be here little girl!  They did a great job with it! 

The refreshments were delicious and they had cute decorations and a very useful game!  They had all the guests write down a baby girl name for every letter of the alphabet to give me and Jon some ideas.  There were definitely some interesting names that came out of it but a few good ones too!!  Who knows, maybe I'll give someone a candybar or something if we end up choosing a name off of their list!  There was a great turn-out and we had fun just hanging out and chatting with the ladies.  I also got some super cute girly gifts!  Girl stuff is so fun!  I love Colton, wouldn't trade him for anything, but girl stuff is SO much more fun than boy stuff :) 

My beautiful friends who threw the shower! Sarah, Alissa, Amy.

AND...their real personalities :)  Haha

This little girl is due to arrive March 4, 2013 (Just 11 more days!!).  I have her room all decorated, we're pre-registered at the hospital, and I took a tour of the mother-baby and delivery rooms on Tuesday.  So now we just gotta wait for her to come and try to mentally prepare ourselves for another baby!  We're both nervous to make the transition to two kids, and I'm ESPECIALLY not looking forward to the lack of sleep, but we're super excited to meet our little girl and finally hold her and see what she looks like!  Any guesses??  Do I have any chance of passing some genes on or are all of our kiddos gonna be red-heads? :)

Baby Girl Room (1)

Baby Girl Room (2)

Baby Girl Room (3)