Happy Spring! Happy Birthday Mommy! Happy Easter!

Happy Spring!

After walking outside in our back yard and seeing the beautiful daffodils that I hopefully planted last year I was so so so excited for the Spring. As the days continued and the other plants I'd planted started coming back again I got even more excited because I thought some of them were dead. Even though our backyard is really little I love coming out and enjoying the beautiful trees and landscaping. I'm excited when we have a more permanent home and I can landscape a lot more and enjoy the life plants bring.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

My birthday this year was wonderful. Scott took me out to a new and really fun Thai restaurant where I ate my favorite, Pad Ki Mao (I think that's how you spell it) and we got to laugh at the cute old lady cutting beans in the corner and the lady who kept subtracting numbers when she was figuring out our bill. We then went to a cute little bakery called The Sweet Tooth Fairy where I picked out a Strawberry Lemonade cupcake (that was delicious) and drove up to the look out where you begin the hike to the Y (the place Scott brought me our first Valentines while we waited to be seated at Bombay house). When we got up there he got out of the car and I could hear him in the back trying to do something (I later discover trying to light a match without the little strip thing). He had taken the cupcake and brought a candle and lit it. He sang me Happy Birthday. To finish off the night we went to get one of my favorites, Juice Press Smoothies and we returned home to our sweet friend Mary who agreed to babysit for us. What a wonderful Birthday! Thank you Mr. Taylor for making my Birthday wonderful! Thank you Mom and Dad for taking me out to another fav, The Cheesecake Factory, and thank you Tamera and Dave for the delicious Pasta dish, your gift and another fav, Banana Creme Pie! 

Happy Easter!
This Easter was even more fun now that Dresden is a little older. I tried explaining to Dresden what Easter as really about, I don't think he really grasped it. Perhaps he did though. He is such smart little boy. I am reminded of that everyday. The day was wonderful. We woke up and found our Easter baskets. Dresden was most excited about the Thomas the Train fruit snacks. I think Scott's favorite thing was his pink tie and my favorite were the absolutely scrumpcious Apple Crumb muffins Scott got up early to make (Mr. Taylor is such a sweetie). We then got dressed for church. This part was one of the funnest things for me. I loved trying hard to have us all look colorful and matching for our Easter Sunday at church. We had a great time at church. We talked with our sunbeams about the Christ's Resurrection and then went on an Easter egg hunt. I enjoyed talking about what Easter is really all about. I gained a greater appreciation for my Savior and I hope in some way the kids were able to as well. On our way to the Taylor's we stopped and said Hi to my parents because they had unexpectedly gotten back early from their camping trip (which I was sad to miss but figured taking a one month old wouldn't have been as much fun as I would've liked). At the Taylor's we went on their traditional and very generous (giving away money) Easter egg hunt and celebrated my birthday. It truly was a beautiful day.

Estelle-Our Little Star

One Day Old

Estelle is only a month old and I'm finally blogging about our beautiful new addition. First, I must explain why I for one am so excited we got the little girl we were hoping for. Prior to hiking the 10 miles down to Havasupi and cliff jumping into the beautiful water I was hoping to have gotten pregnant the first month we tried, but when the test I took right before the hike came back negative, I was a little sad. Fortunately for me the stars in Havasupai were so phenomenal, I was able to make a wish on one of the many falling stars that we could have a baby. After taking a second test about a week later we realized that we indeed were pregnant. Estelle (which means Star in Latin) fell into our family about 9 months later. Heavenly Father responded to my little prayer so when we came across Iliana which means "The Lord Responded" in Hebrew, we had to make that part of her name. She definitely fell from the heavens a bit unexpectedly and rather quickly. Her delivery was significantly shorter than Dresden's and boy was I glad.

Estelle's Birth Timeline

1. Friday before her birth, I got checked by the nurse midwives and I had gone up one inch dilation from the week before and was a 3.5. (I was thrilled because to get to a 2 with Dresden it almost took 24 hours of pretty strong contractions).
2. Monday (day of her birth) I woke up at 6:30am and realized my water had broke. I text my midwife/doula and she said she would be there by 10:30.
3. I then took a walk with Izzy and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day.
4. Came home made a delicious fruit smoothie (my fav), got Dresden fed and called Tamera to have her come get him (about 10am).
5. 10:30- Tamera got there and contractions were just beginning to get strong enough to where I had to focus.
6. 11am- Midwife got there and checked me and I was a 7.5
7. 12pm- Other Midwife and apprentice got there and set up the tub* in the kids room.
8. Around 12:30-12:45pm I got in the tub and had about 4-5 contractions in the tub and then was told I needed only 2 more contractions and I could push. I realized that even if I wanted to go to the hospital at this point it wasn't going to happen.
9. Two contractions later, I was told to push.
10. As far as I can remember I pushed about 3/4 pushes and our "little star" (caught by her daddy) was here. Because her cord was short, was wrapped around her neck and ended up tearing she needed a little help breathing and had some bruising. But she was here all 8lb 9oz 20 inches of her. :-)

*The tub was a horse trough that had a padded blanket placed inside and then a thick plastic lined it and it was duct taped.

One Day Old

Even though there were a few times I thought "What am I thinking? Why don't I have drugs?" I was so glad I was blessed to have the peaceful and calm home birth I ultimately wanted. The only thing that could've made it better would've been to have a pediatrician check her out right after. We were so blessed that things went so well. I told myself that whether I went to the hospital or stayed home depended on how I felt (I had packed a hospital bag and a homebirth kit). With how quickly everything went and the fact that I felt so good with how things were going I just had to proceed with a home birth. Boy was I glad. I loved delivering her naturally even though it was some one of the most challenging thing I've ever done, it was well worth it.

 I realize now that I probably should've been more frightened than I was the fact that she didn't come out screaming and looking a normal color, but I'd like to think that Heavenly Father and his angels were there in that very room comforting me and making me feel confident that everything was going to be okay. I was so grateful for the wonderful Midwives (Sherri Price and Roxanna Mauer) who were experienced enough (only witnessing a cord tearing 3 or so times in their long midwife career) to assist Estelle with her first few minutes that were a bit difficult. I am so so so so grateful that Estelle was so strong and made it through her unexpected and difficult delivery. 

When Dresden saw her for the first time, I don't think he quite understood what was going on, we had him to climb up on the bed with us and asked him to sing "Happy Birthday" to his new baby sister. He agreed and as we sat in our bed together as a family and sang to our new little blessing, I felt the spirit so strongly. I felt so loved by my Heavenly Father that he would bless us with such wonderful children. I also felt stronger desire to help my children love one another. I just felt that Dresden was going to love and take care of his little sister. Even though I never had a big brother, I can just imagine how wonderful it is to have another protector in this crazy world. We tried making a new little sister not seem too crazy by taking a suggestion we received by a fellow ward member. We were suggested to get him a present and say that it was from her. To this day he still remembers it, in fact, the other night he mentioned that she gave him "trucks" and I told him it was because she loved him. His response was "Thank you Estelle". I am the luckiest girl in the world! Welcome to the world Estelle! You have been blessed to be born in the covenant and to be loved by sooo.... many people. 

 Two Days Old

Pictures of the first two months