New Year. New Memories.

Finally, I am sitting down writing a blog update.

So what has been going on in our world lately? Allow me to enlighten you…

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Santa came to our house!

Awesome train table! From Nana Fifi :)

This Christmas morning was really special for our family because Allen is at an age where he can open gifts and be excited about things. Plus, we were able to spend Christmas together this year. Last year, Allen and I spent Christmas alone. It was nice being able to be together, and watch Allen tear off pieces of wrapping paper and place them in neat piles. He got several nice gifts. Including a train table in which he did a dance when saw it all set up. (( side note: it took us almost two hours to assemble the train table the night before. Haha, it is not easy being Santa.))

After we opened gifts, we enjoyed just hanging out at the house until about 5:30pm. Emily and I hosted a Christmas dinner. We had tons of food. It was yummy!

Allen LOVES getting his picture taken.

Me and Emily <3

Overall, this holiday season was very memorable. It is important to remember what the holiday season is really about: being thankful, giving, spending time with our loved ones, and remembering our Savior. 

I turned 22 on the 28^th. I enjoyed a lunch with Jenn and Courtney at Cow Café. They have this amazing sandwich with cranberry sauce. Yum. I also enjoyed a piece of pie. Just thinking about it is making me hungry! That night, Emily and Josh showed up to watch Allen while Daniel took me to dinner. I had no idea that Daniel made plans. When they showed up, I figured they were just stopping by for a visit. When they walked in, Daniel said, “Well, get ready we are going to dinner!” I was very excited, because he had me believing that he was going to make pasta for dinner….again. He took me to Morgan’s Tavern. It is my favorite place to eat in New Bern. It was nice to go out on a “date” with him. We laughed a lot and really enjoyed the moment.

On the 30^th, Jennifer and Robby had their sweet baby girl Cora. I still can’t believe she had her baby before I did! Ha, she wasn’t due until a few weeks after me, but they decided to take her baby early because Jenn’s blood pressure was too high. I’m very happy that delivery went well for Jenn and Cora is happy and healthy!

On the 31^st I was scheduled to be induced at 5am. My instructions were to call that morning and make sure they were still able to do the induction. I started feeling really uncomfortable around 3am that morning. At 3:30 I had to get up. I felt so restless, and I kept having this shooting pain in my lower abdomen that traveled down my legs. I called the hospital at 4am to see if I could still come in to be induced that morning. The nurse informed me that they had too many patients to do my induction and to call back at 7am. I told the nurse that I actually thought I might be close to going into labor because the pain I was having was starting to become more regular. She told me I could come in if I wanted, but if I wasn’t in labor then they would send me home. After I got off the phone with her the contractions became more intense. Daniel called Emily and had her come over. We got in the car, and we headed to the hospital. I remember the car ride feeling like it was never going to end. The contractions were so bad couldn’t help from screaming. When we got to the hospital Daniel pulled up to the emergency room, got a wheel chair, and wheeled me inside. After I got checked in it was 530am-ish. When the nurse checked me I was at 8cms. She gave me pain medication through my IV, and she checked me again. My water broke. I was at 10cms. And at 6:58am, we met Mason! I couldn’t believe how quickly everything happened. I guess that was to be expected since I was dilated to a 5 for a month, huh?

Our first photo together

FINALLY he is here!

Proud Daddy

Mason Glenn 8 pounds 2 oz.

On January 2^nd we were discharged from the hospital to come home. Daniel and I also celebrated our 3^rd anniversary! I can’t believe it has been three years! Where has all the time gone?

Ever since we came home from the hospital I have lost track of time. I don’t even know what day it is today. I kind of like just going with the flow of things, but I guess I need to snap back to reality sometime soon. I’m starting to feel as if I can conquer more. I will admit it was a little overwhelming the first week we were home because it hit me: I’m a mom to not one but TWO babies. We are now on a schedule and life seems a little less hectic. Allen has been doing great as a big brother. He doesn’t really want anything to do with Mason in terms of holding him or kissing him. However, he loves to help bring me a diaper, brush Mason’s hair, and feed him a bottle. When Mason starts fussing Allen will try to find his pacifier or go and get his blanket. It is really sweet watching Allen slowly warm up to Mason. I can’t wait until they get a little bit older so they can interact more.

We also had our first "BIG" snow. It was Allen's first time playing in the snow. Daniel took him out in the snow that afternoon, and at night Emily came over and we played in it some more! I even joined in on the fun.! I'm glad I did! It felt so nice to be able to RUN around the yard with Allen and attempt to run away from Daniel. Allen really enjoyed playing with Stan too! Emily took some AMAZING pictures. She is so good at getting Allen to smile for the camera! :)

Looking at the snow!

Coming inside after playing...

The after snow mess

Adorable.

SNOW

Sweet Snow Baby

Uh oh!

Help!

Face in the snow..

Me and Emily!

Family Snow photo. Again, Allen LOVES pictures.

Our beautiful friend Emily and her little man Stan! 

You are now updated! I look forward to this new year and all the new memories to come! Until next time…

SURPRISE!!!

On Saturday, I was sitting on my couch watching TV trying to decide what to make for dinner when there was a knock at my door. I looked at Daniel and asked him to answer the door. “No, I think you should you should answer it. It is problem one of your friends anyways,” he replied. Frustrated, I got up and opened the door. I stood there for a couple of seconds looking at the person in front of me like I didn’t recognize them; however, I knew exactly who it was. I just couldn’t believe what I was looking at! Who was it? Daniel’s mom! I have been bugging her for months to come for a visit. I was so excited to see her, finally I opened the door fully and gave her a big hug (she doesn’t really like hugs, but she has gotten better at giving them)! Daniel had known about the surprise as well as his whole family for about a month now. I even talked to his Grandpa about an hour before she got here and he had mentioned that Grandma was watching the girlies and when I asked why he said “Because she is shopping!” Ha. Everyone did such an amazing job at keeping it a secret! It was a wonderful surprise!

I really enjoyed having Fifi here. We tried our hardest to get baby Mason to come.

On Sunday we shopped the PX and enjoyed lunch at El Cerros. We then went to the New Bern Mall which I have to say I’m pretty impressed with the little selection of stores they have managed to get. We walked so much. We then went to Target and did SIX laps around the store. I wonder if anyone noticed us doing power laps around the store or if they were too busy shopping? That night, we went to Texas Steakhouse. I was in so much pain from all the walking. My hands and feet were at least ten times their normal size. At least, that is what it felt like. I was rather whiny at dinner and because of my discomfort I got frustrated with the waitress. She was trying to be nice, but she was rather awkward and kept flirting with Daniel which made me want to gag. I can get in some pretty ridiculous moods while I’m pregnant, and I was definitely in a funk at dinner. (Sorry guys!)

On Monday we made a trip to Jacksonville. We ate at Olive Garden. We also accidently parked in the “To-Go” parking. Ha, oops! We then walked around Toy’s R Us and Babies R Us which is always enjoyable. We made a stop at Target. At Target Allen found a toy from the PBS show The Dinosaur Train. It talks and has over 50 sayings! However, on the Demo mode it only said the same 5 sayings. Allen’s favorite sayings were: “Ready?!” and “We’re going to ride The Dinosaur Train!” So he would quickly press the button back to those two sayings and say them as loud as he could along with the toy. Ha. This made for a very interesting ride home until he finally fell asleep. Before we left Jacksonville, we stopped at Sam’s Club and stocked up on food. We also bought some crab legs for a Birthday Dinner for Daniel. Oh, and we got Coldstone! It was a perfect ending to the Jacksonville trip. When we made it back to Havelock we stopped at Wal-Mart to get a stockpot for the crab legs. I got the Paula Dean stockpot in the same robin eggs blue color to match my roasting pan. I love that color. We also picked up some castor oil. I will NEVER drink cranberry juice ever again. After all the walking and the castor oil I was for sure Mason was going to come. I stayed up that night due to all the pressure and the contractions….which brings us to Tuesday….

On Tuesday, I called the doctor and asked if I could come and be checked because I felt as if I had dilated more even though contractions were still irregular. The doctor wanted me to go to the hospital to be checked. So, I did. I was still dilated to a 5, but they wouldn’t let me go home because I was having some pretty intense contractions and they were starting to come every 4 minutes. After SIX hours of observation…SIX HOURS they decided to let me go home because even though I effaced more I had not dilated anymore. Ugh. This really disappointed me. I could have spent the entire day with Fifi and Allen. But I guess I shouldn’t be too disappointed because I feel like I did all I could to try to get him to come.

Today, Fifi left at 9:30am. We hugged (again!) I hated seeing her bright orange rental car drive down my street. I wish I could be making the journey home with her. I hope she enjoyed herself. I know we enjoyed having her here! Spending the three and half days with her made me realize just how much I miss being at home. I would love to be able to see my family anytime I wanted to. This past year especially has made realize how thankful I am for the people I have in my life. Life is too short to be mad at someone or to not take the time to call them or even write a letter. I’ve really been trying to let people know how much I care about them. I’ve also learned how much people care about me. And you know what? It is a wonderful feeling to be able to love and be loved. I think it is the best gift we can give to one another.

Until next time…

Santa Baby

 Why is every little kid scared of Santa? I really don’t know. Jenn and I took Allen and Lyla to get their picture taken with Santa. Lyla is a very outgoing baby and we both figured she wouldn’t have any problem at all sitting in Santa’s lap. I was hoping that she would be a role model for Allen, so I could do well with people he doesn’t know. Once Allen realized that I was getting him out of the stroller to see Santa he started to freak out. He jumped out of my arms and tried to crawl back into his stroller. Lyla proceeds to take one look and Santa and she has a meltdown too. Why? WHY?! I finally get Allen to calm down enough to walk up to Santa and get his candy cane. In hopes that he has been persuaded by candy, I knelt down in an attempt to take a picture with Santa. As soon as I slyly slide him onto Santa’s lap, he started screaming and then he crawled away. Yes, crawled. Screaming. It was really pathetic. I don’t think I will make Mason suffer through it next year. Maybe by next year Allen will be old enough to reason with. Who knows? After he calmed down I tried to get some cute pictures of him. Here are some pictures of the entire experience:

Here is Allen having a melt down when he realizes he is seeing Santa. He tried climbing back into his stroller.

Here is Allen after getting his candy cane.

Allen being good.

Allen loves letters. Here he is telling me what letters he can see.

Allen and Lyla. 

Allen ignoring me.

Allen loved playing Peak-A-Boo with Lyla!

Today, I spent all day in the hospital. I just got home not too long ago. I’m now dilated to 5 ½ cm. Since my contractions are not every 5 minutes I’m not in labor. I’m really concerned that when they do come every 5 minutes and my water does break that I’m going to have to delivery my own baby because more than likely I will progress really fast. I hate not knowing what is going happen or when he is going to come. I was induced with Allen so nothing was a surprise. I guess this time it is going to be an adventure. Wonderful. Wow, I sound a little bitter, huh? I know I should be really excited because my pregnancy is almost over with. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very excited. I’m just very exhausted too.

Please, say a prayer and keep your fingers crossed that we will be meeting soon! Until next time…