2 Broken Computers

I have a lot of cute pictures for y'all but no computer to put them on. A few months ago our computer cord broke so we started using an older laptop till we could get the $150 computer cord. The other computer was sitting on our end table next to Joseph's side of the bed and while he was sleeping he some how knocked it over and now it won't turn on. So I'm at a friend's house now and I'll put pictures up when I can but for now we're canceling our internet b/c with two broken computers there's no point in paying for the internet. (unless someone can let me know a way that we can still use it. Ha)

Carly had her first dr. apt. the other day and they said that she's only lost 3 oz. So she's now 6 pounds 8 oz. Somehow she miraculously grew 1 inch. So either they messed up in the hospital when she was born or they messed up at the dr.'s office but they're saying she's now 19 1/2 inches. Whatever.

Ella is doing well but seems to be very emotional. I don't know if it's b/c of the new baby, or all of the commotion the past few weeks with birthdays, Christmas, new baby and traveling. She's doing great with Carly and loves to kiss and hug her but she keeps her distance when she's playing and doesn't feel the need to smother her.

Joseph and I are more tired than ever but I guess that's what we signed up for. I'm adjusting really well with two babies. Way better than I thought I would. I'm up and about, actually taking showers and doing my make-up. Joseph is such a big help doing dishes and making dinner (when people aren't brining them over). Life is good. I'll try and get some pictures up. We're going to AZ on Thursday so I'll put them up at my mom's house. Hope everyone is doing well.

The Story...

Ok, I have a little bit of time to let you all know how things went the other day. We had an appointment to be induced the 21st at 8 am. We got there a 1/2 hr early to make sure that we were able to be induced on time. The nurse said to us, "sorry, I'm running behind, it will be about another 20 to 30 min." Which was fine b/c we were about that early anyway. Well 20 to 30 min. turned into an hour and then while we were waiting some girl came in who was in labor so of course she got to go before me. (even though I felt like standing up to her and saying, "HEY, wait your turn! I had an appointment dang it!" lol) I guess that's one appointment that "walk ins" have the upper hand. We didn't get admitted till 11 am! Then of course I had to wait SIX hours before I even got Pitocin. That's right, they had me get into the hospital gown, hooked me up to monitors, put an IV in my wrist, drew blood and left me there like a wounded animal for 6 freak'n hours. It wasn't till I called for the nurse for the 3rd time and started crying b/c I had been sitting on my butt for nothing and had no reason to just be sitting there knowing that I wasn't in labor or induced or anything so I was making no progress. They didn't even let me eat! I think that's why I broke down crying, I was so tired already and so hungry and I knew I had a long haul in front of me. She called my dr. for me and told him what I told her so they finally got a nurse into my room right away, started the pitocin and broke my water at 5 pm. I tried to breath through the contractions as long as I could and ended up getting the epidural at 10 pm. when I was at 5 cm. The anesthesiologist was really good but put the needle in a blood vessel the first time and had to pull it out and put it back in again. Once it was in he had to pull it out and check to see if it was in another blood vessel and put it right back in. Ohhhh, mercy that was not fun. Then I could relax but not for long b/c the anesthesia started to wear off on my left side. So they guy came back in and gave me another bolus of anesthesia. About 1:30 he had to come back in b/c it had worn off on my right side! He could only give me just a little bit though b/c I was dilated to a 9! Then I felt Carly drop and it took everything I had to keep her inside of me. I said to the nurse, "uhhh, this baby is coming out right now." She checked me and was like, "OH MY GOODNESS, HOLD ON!" She went to call my dr. and said to hang in there, he'll be here in 15 min. The dr. got there at about 2:10 and I pushed Carly out in 2 pushes and she was born at 2:15. Joseph said that it didn't even take 2 min for me to push her out. (I'm sure that explains the 1 inch tear I have that got stitched up.) It was pretty crazy that I pushed her out so fast b/c the 3rd epidural bolus had just kicked in and I felt completely paralyzed from the lower back down. I remember with my first push thinking, "oh man, this is going to take like 2 hours b/c I can't feel a thing and have no clue what I'm doing".
Joseph was soooo awesome through the whole thing. He never complained (like I did) that we were there for so long. He was willing to not eat so I didn't feel left out, he helped me breath when I needed it and he let me almost break his hand with out saying a word while I got the epidural. He kept telling me what an awesome job I did and how perfect everything was, which is what you want to hear when you get done pushing out a baby. :) He was and still is so supportive and I love him so so much. He's the best in the middle of the night in helping with whatever he can.

I'm a little sore still. I had a lot of work done down there including 2 moles that had grown abnormally. So I am stitched up more than a homemade rag doll and it's hard to walk. B/c of the epidural going in so many times I feel like I got a blow to the back by a sledge hammer and it's hard to move. Things have progressivly been getting better though.

It's been a little frustrating for us b/c Carly is having a hard time eating. The nurses suggested it's b/c she just wasn't ready to come out yet...but she won't wake up for the life of her. I've got to practically torture the poor girl to get her to eat for 5 min. straight. It's actually kind of scary b/c with Ella, she would just cry when she was hungry. Carly will just sleep through it so I have to constantly be checking the time to make sure she eats on time. I even have to set an alarm in the middle of the night so she'll eat properly. I'm hoping that since my milk has just come in it will get the ball rolling. For now, I am doing the best I can and supplementing her when needed. She is such a sleepy little girl and I think we've seen her eyes opened for a total of 10 min since she was born.

Ella just loves Carly so much and always wants to hold her. I have suffered the wrath of being a parent of more than 1. Last night I was nursing Carly and Ella was up was WAY past her bed time. She wanted me to say good night to her but I had just gotten Carly to get to eating and couldn't stop. I had to sit and listen her cry so hard for me through the walls and it just broke my heart. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Today was Christmas morning and Carly slept through the whole thing. Ella got like 3,000 presents between us, Nonie and Pop and her Gigi. The whole room was filled with Ella presents. The poor girl didn't know what to do with everything. She kept running from one toy to the next. It was fun to see her though. A few of her most exciting gifts were a TMX Elmo (from Nonie and Pop) that she screamed with glee and ran up and down in place squeezing him for a whole min. straight. She also got a whole slew of baby accessory toys such as a stroller, car seat, diaper bag, high chair, bouncy chair...for her baby dolls. She's been dragging her babies all over the house in the stroller. So cute. Joseph got a new golf bag (much needed) and I got some much needed clothes for my newly adjusted "mommy" figure. :) We had a great Christmas and feel very blessed with such a wonderful little family. My parents and brother were able to come out along with my brother's girlfriend and it was fun to have family around. Thank you everyone for your concerns and prayers for Miss Carly, we are so happy that she is a healthy baby and everything turned out well. Merry Christmas everyone!

Our Family Grew by Two Feet!

Carly Jane Killian was born Saturday morning the 22nd at 2:15 am. She was 6 lbs and 11 oz, 18 1/2 in. long. We are so excited to have her here. I've actually gotta go feed her (or try I should say) now so I'll leave you with what what you really want....pictures... and when I have more time I'll let you know the details.

Seems Just Like Yesterday....

....she was this big and today she turned two years old! We had a birthday party for Ella yesterday and she was sooo excited for it. She kept talking about her "burtday pawty" and that she was going to have all her friends come and she was going to have birthday hats and cake and "keem keema" (ice cream). We invited about 10 other kids and all but 2 showed up so we had a nice turn out. The morning started out with the happy birthday song, breakfast and then we got started on our party food. Ella helped me make over 50 gingerbread men.... She loved helping so much that she wouldn't stop taking fist fulls of gingerbread dough so she got to go eat lunch in her seat right about that time. :) Then she took a nap and I got to some serious work. I had to finish with the gingerbread men, make some of this gingersnap dip that was really awesome to dip cookies in, dirt cake, chocolate pudding for the dirt cake, gumdrop flowers for the dirt cake, and some bagel pizza bites. It was a pretty crazy 3 hours. Joseph was feeling pretty sick but I still had him run to the store for me b/c we didn't have a rolling pin and I was finding out real quick that a children's plastic cup from Macaroni Grill was not going to work. A rolling pin made it go much faster! Joseph helped so much despite his massive head cold. (Thanks Babe!) Ella woke up from her nap about 20 min before her party started. She was so excited and came running into the kitchen to greet me with a big ear to ear grin on her face, beaming and said, "Mah BURTDAY Pawty!". It was so sweet. This was the first time Ella had ever had any friends come over to HER house (we're always over at other people's) and she was soooo excited. She led all the kids to her room, held her arms open wide, standing in the middle of her (very clean) room and said, "Mah TOYS!!!". She would take toys and start handing them out for everyone. After a while of ransacking the room it was time to make cookies. I did kind of a Christmas theme for her party. All the kids got to decorate a big gingerbread cookie and take it home... All the adults ate and talked. While the kids went back and played some more. Then we decided it was time to open presents. Daddy helped as Ella sat on his lap. She got so much neat stuff and was really excited after each one. She'd open one and want to play with it and disregard all the other gifts. :) She made out with quite a bit. She got a Mrs. Potato head, My Little Pony, fun art books and boards, a hat and mittens, a dvd reading game and camping tent/sleeping bag from mommy and daddy, Little people, a dress up doll and holiday dress from Nonie and Pop, money from "Geem-geema" and Pop K, and a shopping cart with food from Aunt Ashley. Although she received many many toys, I don't think that mattered to her as much as it did to have all of her friends over to play with her. If you could've just seen the excitement on her face to have everyone at HER house, playing in HER room with HER toys you would've felt like I did and known that all the hard work and stress before the party was well worth it. ...even if her room looked like this at the end of the night. Looks like they had fun! and at least they weren't board. :)


Today at 8:35 am Ella turned 2. Joseph stayed in bed sick while Ella and I went to church. She got to have fun in nursery and play with friends some more. I started getting all stuffy and my sinuses were hurting so I after teaching my class I went to get Ella to come home early but she didn't want to leave. (quite a change from 6 months ago!) So it being her birthday I let her stay and I just sucked it up for another 40 min. We went home, ate lunch and we all decorated cookies together (again). Ella mostly just ate all the candy that was supposed to go on her gingerbread man and mine kinda looks scary but it was fun to do. After nap Daddy helped put up Ella's tent and we sat and watched Barney and ate popcorn. (she got to watch it in her tent, we opted for sitting next to it.) All in all, I think she had a fun weekend. But the fun isn't going to stop there. She still has a package coming tomorrow, her Nonie and Pop coming to visit, a sister coming on Friday, Daddy's birthday Sunday and then Christmas on Tuesday. Man, I don't think this girl is going to know what hit her! :) I hope you had a good birthday Ella girl! We love you.
....by the way, I did a new background on our blog and I've lost some links. If you see that your name isn't on my link list anymore, just leave me your address in the comments. I tried to remember as many as I could but alas, I failed. :) Thanks!

Baby Momma Drama is coming to an end!

I've been waiting to put up a real post till after my appointments today. Baby's vitals are still good. I'm dilated to a 1, 70% effaced and she's dropped about as far as she can right now with out coming out on her own (pretty good for a month early). Oh, and not only have I not gained anymore weight I lost a pound. Yesss! The doctor is going to induce me next FRIDAY! yay! She'll be 3 weeks early but at least she'll have made it to 37 weeks. That's what we were hoping for and the doctor is taking her out to avoid any more problems. I might be singing a different tune come next Friday but for now, I feel totally ready for this new baby. Ella's potty trained and in her own bed, we've got our Christmas tree up, Christmas and birthday shopping not only done but every thing's wrapped and ready to go, Ella's birthday party is planned and invitations are out and the house is as clean and as organized as it's going to get. Now it's just a waiting game.

Saturday we had a big day. Poor Joseph was my slave for the day. We cleaned like crazy. I don't mean just picked up a messy house I mean like scrubbed every nook and cranny, organized anything and everything (even our outside storage room) and now I feel all this sudden like our apartment is twice it's size. I'm pretty sure Joseph was so sick of me but he was such a good sport and helped me out SO much with the things I couldn't do. Later that night we went to our ward Christmas party. I felt like I was going to die after all the work we did that day. My back, feet, stomach, groin, legs, pelvis and anything else that has to do with my joints hurt so bad I could hardly move but I wanted to have some fun so we went. I love the 12 to 14 year old girls b/c they love to take the nursery kids (for what reason... I don't know) and they took Ella for me allllll night long. It was almost like a date for us. I have to say, with all due respect, the food was probably the worst I've ever had. It, honestly, was right up there with hospital food. Processed turkey breast, dry baked potatoes, gravy with a slight burnt taste to it, canned corn and a salad with so much dressing on it that all the lettuce was wilted. I'd say the best part of the DINNER was the wilted salad but I have this thing with acidic foods where it eats away at my tongue so I couldn't even eat that. I would say the best part of the MEAL was the homemade dessert. I'm pretty sure it tasted good b/c it wasn't mass produced like dinner was, different people in the ward made different desserts. :) We did have fun though visiting with friends and the best part was...Santa came! Ella loves Santa but not the real guy, just all the statues and pictures she sees on tv, people's lawn ornaments and in the stores. So we waited in line and the whole time I was giving her a pep talk about Santa and how he brings candy and toys and he is really nice and we get to meet him and tell him what we want for Christmas. She kept saying, "dep! Can-ee, toys. Can-ee, toys. Mah Tanta, can-ee, toys." She seemed pretty good to go till we got up there and the big scary Santa was way to much for her. She started to freak out and tried crawling up my whole body with her arms wrapped tightly around my neck. I had to back off a bit and show her that he was really nice and we can stand as far away from him as she needed. She finally warmed up to him enough to let him hand me her little candy bag so I could give it to her. (she won't let strangers give things to her, they have to give them to me and then I give them to her. Kinda funny but safe I guess.) We got a picture but it's on a friend's camera and I've got to wait for her to e-mail it to me. Anyway...We've got a lot to look forward to this up coming week. Saturday is Ella's birthday party, Sunday is Ella's birthday, Friday is Carly's birthday, Friday night my family is coming to have Christmas at our house and help with Ella and the new baby, next Sunday is Joseph's birthday and Tuesday is Christmas! I can't wait to see Ella walk out Christmas morning to all of the toys and fun things Santa brought her. It's going to be the best part!

Since I don't really have any pictures for this post here are a few from the week...note to self, don't leave your toddler alone while eating....

Christmas Getting To Know You

I got this from the Fife's blog... If you want, copy and past it into your own blogs with your answers ~ it could be fun!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper with real ribbon bows.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Although my mom tells me that we had a fake tree when I was young, Joseph and I have never had a real tree (that we can remember) so we both agree we don't want the fuss...we like artificial. Plus, you only have to buy one like every 10 years.

3. When do you put up the tree? As soon as possible. This year was our 2nd year with a tree of our own. We put it up the Sat. after Thanksgiving b/c I was really excited.

4. When do you take the tree down? New Years day

5. Do you like egg nog? In moderation, but yes.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A big loppy eared bunny that I named Thumper.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a Willow Tree one that my mother'n law gave me and I love it.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My grandma

9. Easiest person to buy for? Ella (and Carly)

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Totally Mail! Everyone likes to get real mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? When santa gave me a fake lop eared bunny to try and pass it off as a real one. (the next year is when I got the real one)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I think Miricle On 34th Street.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I see a good sale for what I want to get the person. (usually black friday, sometimes earlier)

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think a Christmas present but definately have recycled presents.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Gingerbread cookies, and candy cane tootsie pops.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night is a good one... so is Silent Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Love to travel, it's like a tradition.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We started a tradition to give our kids an ornament Christmas Eve. Everything else on Christmas day.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? When people are in a hurry and really don't care about anyone else in their way and for get about that good 'ole Christmas spirit of giving and charity.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Right now we have a woodsy/antiquey theme going on and I like it.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? This year is our first year at home so we're going to try lamb shanks. I never had it so I'll let you know. Turkey and ham have been the norm and I like them.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? It was so hard to figure out what to say I wanted. We want a camcorder and games to play as a family but me personally...I'm the kind of person to see something I like at the moment but not remember later. Sorry Joseph. :) I wouldn't mind Santa magically taking all my prego fat away. :)