One Month Old

Kacie Grace is already one month old (actually, at this point she's almost 6 weeks, 'cause I'm a little late on blogging)!  We are all completely in love with her and so glad that God added her to our family!  Of course, at this point, there's not much to say about what she does (eats and sleeps), although she is a very noisy baby.  She doesn't really cry other than when she's hungry, but she pretty much constantly growls!  We call her a baby bear.  People always think she's trying to poop, but it's just her constant stream of noise!

Haley, Abby and Seth love to hold her and kiss her and laugh at the funny faces she makes.  During the first couple weeks anytime they would see her with her eyes open it was big news and they would yell "Her eyes are open" to anyone who wasn't in the room!  As she's getting bigger (already almost 10 pounds) and she does tummy time, Seth is always pretty sure she's getting ready to crawl!

As I am typing this, she's asleep on my chest and, as cheesy as it sounds, I really am cherishing these minutes, because I know it will be all too soon that she's going off to kindergarten!  The feeling of snuggling a newborn is like nothing else in all the world and I wish it could last so much longer than it will, but I'm also so excited to see her grow and get to know her more and more!

4th Of July

This 4th of July we tried to pack in as much fun as we could handle!  We started with what we like to call "The Longest, Shortest Parade"!  It's a little parade in Aptos that they call the world's shortest parade because the distance it travels is short.  It's not short time-wise though!  Our tradition is to get there early to get the spot right next to where the parade starts.  We get our chairs and blankets set-up and then go get donuts (and Carey gets a breakfast burrito)!  This year we had such a great time at the parade.  Grandma Jackie and Auntie Laura came in our car with us, and our friends, the Rhoads met us down there.  Grammie Lori, Uncle Judah, Auntie Melissa and Auntie Kellie came for a little bit, too!  There was a little girl sitting next to us that was totally enamored with Haley, which was really cute.  I actually think that we may have made it through the whole parade without any tears, too, which is amazing!

All ready to stake out our spot!

I think this is our first family picture as a family of 6 (or 7 if you count Banjo)

At least one of my kids knows how to pick a normal size donut!

Kacie was so excited about the parade!  I'm sure she'll remember every second of it!

I love that my hubs lets me do things like this!

Banjo doesn't know he's too big to be a lap dog!

Seth enjoyed the parade from Uncle Judah's lap.

After the parade we went home and everyone except Kacie and I took a nap!  Our friends, the Orlandos, came over for a bbq that evening.  The kids ran around and played like crazy hoolligans and we had a delicious bbq dinner.  After the bbq we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores!  That's about as much as we would normally pack into a day, but this time, we had more!  We packed the kids into the car and headed out to Watsonville, where it's legal to do fireworks!  Dana had scoped out a parking lot for us to do them in.  The funny thing is that we thought the kids would think it was so fun and they ended up sitting in the car, totally afraid of the fireworks!  Eventually Abby and Seth came out and even did some sparklers!  It was really fun, though, and we decided that next year we'll save the money on buying our own fireworks and just watch all the huge illegal ones that where going off all around us!

Carey and Dominick (aka "Unky") ready to light some fireworks...after they laid them all out from biggest to smallest!

A car full of frightened children!

Dance Recital 2014

We always love dance recital day, and this year was so fun because it was Seth's first time in the recital and Haley's first time in the big kid recital, plus she did 2 dances. 

Seth woke up at 5:30 and told me he was so excited and that he was going to eat breakfast and then get his costume on!  His recital was first and we got there plenty early to get good seats.  He was so excited and not even a little bit nervous.  Onstage he looked like he was having a blast, and he knew every step so well!  Papa Phil said that Seth "stole the show"!

This kid is ready to go!

Waiting in line to get in to the show!

Doing the "coffee grinder"!

We had about an hour between Seth's recital and when Haley had to be backstage for her recital, so we went and got some ice cream.

 

After ice cream it was time for Haley to get ready.  She changed into her costume in the car and I did her hair and make-up on the sidewalk and she was ready to go.  She was also super excited, and a little nervous about changing costumes backstage by herself.  She did an awesome job with a big smile and beautiful dance moves, especially in her ballet dance.

Jazz dance

Ballet dance

Finale

Is this girl gorgeous or what?!

Webber girls:)

Our sweet friends Joy and Janelle came to watch Haley's dance.

It was Kacie's first big day out, and she did great.  Abby did a really good job as well, just waiting around for shows to start, and then sitting and watching all the dances.  It was such a fun day and we can't wait until next year!

First Week Of Life

Yesterday Kacie turned 1 week old!  It seems like she's been here for so much longer and so much shorter all at the same time.  It was a fairly uneventful week.  The big sisters and brother are all really sweet with her.  As far as Kacie goes, she just sleeps!  Haley has had a really hard time adjusting, which we knew would be the case, but other than that, everything has been just great! 

We have 4 kids!

And Now There Are 4!

Kacie Grace decided that she just couldn't wait to get here, so she came a few weeks early, born June 9th (due June 27th).

On Sunday afternoon I was playing in the backyard with Haley and Seth when I suddenly started leaking!  I had been in the pool, and my swimsuit was still a little wet, but I thought that it might be that my water broke (which didn't happen until almost the end of labor with Seth, so I didn't really know what it felt like).  At my last prenatal appointment my midwife had told me that I tested positive for group b strep (a common bacteria that people can be a carrier of) which meant that if my water broke I needed to go straight to the hospital, because I needed to be on iv antibiotics throughout labor.  So, even though I wasn't sure, I figured better safe than sorry.  I called Carey to come home, my mother-in-law came over to be with the kids (she happened to be just up the street at her sister's house), and we headed to the hospital.  Once there, they determined that my water had broken, so they got my iv antibiotics started and Carey went home to get our stuff.  I think we got to the hospital about 3:00 in the afternoon.  The next million hours were spent waiting to go into labor!  Ali, our awesome friend came to be our doula and we waited and waited and waited!  We paced the halls.  Ali rubbed essential oils on my feet.  We were about ready to go out and get some wasabi!  The plan was to start pitocin around 5:00 in the morning if nothing had progressed.  Pitocin was basically my biggest fear...as I wanted to have another natural labor and pitocin usually leads to really painful, intense contractions, which leads to an epidural (at least that's the picture I had in my mind).  Around 11:00 that night we decided to just try and go to sleep.  Every time I woke up through the night I looked at the clock, begging the Lord that I could go into labor without pitocin.  Around 4:30 I got up to do some more walking, trying to surrender to the way things were going.  I kept reminding myself that no matter how the labor went, I was going to get to meet Kacie relatively soon.

5:00 a.m. came, and they added pitocin to my iv, starting at a very low dose.  Every half hour or so they would come and up the dose.  Still, nothing was really happening.  Once the pitocin was started, I was confined to my room, as they had to monitor Kacie really closely.  Around 9:30 my wonderful midwife came and asked me if I wanted her to check my cervix and see what was happening (I had already been at 4cm for about a week).  At this point, Carey was at Ali's house sleeping (she lives really close to the hospital), and Ali and I cheered, because we had been wanting someone to check me but nobody would!  She checked me and broke my forebag of water (apparently sometimes there can be a second bag of water...who knew?).  That was all I needed.  So, after being at the hospital for 18 1/2 hours just waiting for labor to start, at 9:50 I finally had my first "real" contraction.  They turned the pitocin down and then off, and my labor went REALLY fast.  Less than two hours later, at 11:43, Kacie Grace was born.  It was so hard (duh) and so amazing and I am so happy she is here!

That's my amazing midwife, Meredith. I am so thankful she is the one who delivered Kacie.

My friend and amazing doula, Ali. I get teary just thinking about how thankful I am that she was with us.

Preschool Graduate

On Friday morning, Seth graduated from preschool (the best preschool ever, by the way)!  I can't even believe it.  As I watched him button up his shirt as he was getting dressed I thought about how soon it will seem that he's getting ready for his high school graduation!  Anyway, Seth was super excited about graduating and we all had a really good time.  Days like that are always so bittersweet to me.  It's exciting to see the kids accomplish something and be ready to move on to something different, but it's so sad to be leaving a younger stage behind.  And especially sad to be leaving our preschool that we are so in love with.  Well, not really leaving, just taking a break for a couple years until Kacie is there!

The graduation ceremony was precious and special and the graduates each got a diploma and a lollipop!  Afterwards there was a potluck and we got to hang out and chat and the kids got to play.

We are proud of you, Seth, and WE LOVE YOU Rocking Horse Ranch!