Merry Christmas 2011!

Adam couldn't wait to hold Dixie!

Morrison family Christmas party.

Love this onesie! Thanks to Diane and Gary

These were the cute Christmas outfits from Mima and Pawpaw! It was a miracle that Carson wore it for about 2 min. so we could snap a pic, so we weren't able to get them together.

Christmas morning!! Carson wasn't too interested in Santa's gifts until I tore some paper off of the first one and it was a Shake 'n Go Thomas the Tank Engine. After that, he didn't even want to open anymore gifts, he just wanted to play with Thomas.

But, then he found this bus from Santa, too and he was one happy kid.

Dixie on the other hand ripped right into her presents! Well, with a little help from us of course.

Yes, even after two kids and looking like death warmed over, we still love each other very much!

What a wonderful Christmas it was with a toddler and a brand new precious baby to celebrate with. We had a great time opening gifts, giving gifts and just being together. Hope your Christmases were merry and bright as well!

2 Weeks in survival mode

"Camping" in the family room while power was out.

How nice do babies have it sometimes?

Snug as a bug--with room to grow.

Our little sweetheart

Big brother and little sis.

Well, this post is coming a little late. It's hard to believe how little time I can even get to check my email, let alone blog, with a toddler and new little one. For the first two weeks I've pretty much just been in survival mode. It was so nice to have Benji home for a few days to hang out with Carson, while Dixie and I got settled in at home. Carson definitely started to turn more into a daddy's boy than he ever was.

At 2 weeks Dixie weighed 8# 4 oz. and was still 20 in. long. The doctor said she was adorable and healthy (of course we already knew she was so adorable). What a blessing it is to have two beautiful and healthy kids! We are grateful for that everyday. We feel so blessed to have another sweet spirit in our home to get to know and love. More news and pics to come soon!

So Thankful!

Getting to know my little beauty on her birthday just after she took a bath and got her hair done--such a girl!

We had to have her sport her LSU gear for the game against Arkansas on Nov. 25th. She cheered them onto victory with all that cuteness.

Carson came to hang out and meet Dixie Anne on the 25th. Right from the start he understood that she was the "baby sister" we'd been telling him about.

Mama and Dixie getting ready to go home!

Our hands are full now with these two little ones. :)

Wait, I have TWO kids?! It's still kind of surreal sometimes.

First bath at home.

So Sweet!

Well, with Dixie born on Thanksgiving, it's appropriate to talk about how thankful we are for her precious little life and for our lives right now. Last Wednesday we scheduled to have my water broken today (the 29th) if she hadn't come yet. She got the message and started coming during that night!

What I'm Thankful For:

I'm so thankful that I got to try a natural childbirth, for an amazing midwife to help me, a very supportive husband who did (and still does) anything I ask of him, for family who stepped right in to take such good care of Carson, for modern medicine to help me recover, for great nurses, for sweet friends and family who generously helped us get ready with lots of cute clothes for Dixie,
and mostly for two healthy, beautiful children whom I love more than anything!

The Birth:

As Benji mentioned in the last post I did have a drug free childbirth this time around. It was crazy! Would I do it again? Probably. Am I glad I tried it? Definitely. It was A LOT more painful than I ever anticipated, but it was really neat managing the pain on my own with the help of some massage, sitting in a relaxing jacuzzi and verbal encouragement. While the pain during the birth was a lot worse than last time, the recovery has been ten times easier, which is why I would do it again. A lot of mom's say they felt more aware and present without the epidural. I would say the opposite for me. I was in so much pain at the end that I was really exhausted and out of it this time around. But, I remember being so purely happy that she was here and healthy and the whole birth was done. I had been thinking about and planning this in my mind for several months that it felt like a great achievement to finally have it behind me. The birth was only 8 hours, so I don't know how long I would have stuck it out without meds, but all in all it went very smoothly for me and for Dixie.

Life Now:

Well, our sweet Dixie Anne is 5 days old already and she gets cuter everyday and captures our hearts more with each passing minute. She's really been a great baby so far. She doesn't cry a lot, sleeps through all our noise, and already nurses great! Carson has been a joy to watch with her. He's so interested in her and loves to give her kisses on her nose and stroke her hair when she's sleeping. Yesterday, he quietly took her her binkie all by himself just to be nice. It's really cute! Life is a little more tiring, but so much more fun with these two. There are a lot of stresses and questions about our lives right now, but when I step back and see my wonderful husband, hilarious little boy and adorable newborn girl I realize that I have everything I've hoped for (at least for a couple more years :)!

Dixie Anne King

Well, now I know why my Dad uses the term of endearment, "Sugar", when he talks to my sisters, his daughters. To a Daddy, his little girl(s) are nothing but sweet. Our little sweet girl decided to make her debut on Thanksgiving day.

Dixie Anne King was born at 11:24 a.m. on 11/24/11 (pretty cool, huh? 11:24 on 11/24). She weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz. and measured 20 inches. And believe it or not, Dixie topped her big brother, Carson, in the hair department. She has a head full of beautiful, blonde hair that appeared very curly right out the gates, but now looks a little more straight after a bath. No problem finding a spot to place a bow! Like her ol' man, Dixie is a great eater. She latched right on soon after her arrival and eats well.

And now props for Mommy. You know how someone appreciates something more after working for it? Witnessing a natural childbirth sans medication helps me understand why a mother loves her children so much. A mother works extremely hard to welcome her children to Earth. I know that is an obvious understatement, but considering what a mother endures through a pregnancy, labor, and delivery is truly a testament of a mother's love.
Anne will probably give a better, more thorough account of the labor story but I'll give it a shot. Anne woke me up around 3:30 a.m. and we got to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City around 4:00 a.m. It was determined that this was true labor and we got admitted and situated in a nice room. The staff was excellent and caring, especially Anne's midwife, Diane. She helped comfort Anne with a birthing ball, jacuzzi baths, and massages. Steady contractions lasted until about 10:45 a.m. when Anne started pushing. Diane commented on how wonderful Anne was at paying attention to her body and the whole process went without a hitch. Then, this finally culminated in our sweet Dixie greeting us after many months of anticipation for her birth.

The Thanksgiving season encourages us to reflect on what blessings we are given in our lives and helps remind us of the things for which we are grateful. Although I have more to be thankful for than I realize, I don't have to dig too deep this year to see obvious gifts in my life. Dixie serves as a perfect reminder of God's love for His children and His desire to bless us. I am soooooo grateful for my sweet Anne who more than fulfills her calling as wife and mother. Anne and I are blessed with two of the sweetest, most beautiful children that we could have ever imagined. We find great peace in knowing that our family will be together forever and are very thankful for the children Heavenly Father has entrusted us with.

37 Weeks! and Other Happenings

36 weeks!

I'll miss not having my nice shelf for drinks and food once this pregnancy ends. :) haha

I was totally impressed and surprised when I saw Carson building this tower so carefully! I think it's pretty good for his age to be able to build it with such small pieces and so high!

Not even the first snow storm of this winter could get Benji's spirits down for the "Tussle in Tuscaloosa" later that evening.

We had some friends over to watch the LSU vs. Alabama show down at our place so I thought it would be fun to decorate a bit. It must have worked because LSU beat Bama 9 to 6.

Also, I'm now 37 weeks along!!
So most of you won't find this interesting, but so I can remember later I'd like to record it. Remember how I hadn't gained any weight from 32-34 weeks? Well, I made up for that. Between 34 and 36 weeks I gained 7 pounds and my belly grew 4 cm to 37 cm!! Baby must have had a nice growth spurt.
Now, at 37 weeks I just gained 1 nice little pound and still measure 37 cm. I'm 1 cm dilated and 50-60% effaced. During the game last night I started feeling painful contractions, but they didn't end up leading to labor so we're still patiently waiting--it won't be long now!!

Happy Halloween!

Quite the happy boy with his loot!

We didn't have time or money to get a proper trick or treat basket. Benj suggested just a grocery sack, but I wanted it to be more fun than a plain old Wal-Mart bag so I found this round basket in the house and decorated one side like a Jack-O-Lantern and the other like a Cat--I felt like quite the resourceful person that afternoon. haha

My two basketball stars walking to our neighborhood Trunk or Treat. Don't you just love the scenery of fall?

I was a bit of a "ball hog" the whole night. :)

My Grandma is in a rehab facility (she broke her hip a few weeks ago), so we got to go trick or treating there first.

This really has to be one of my favorite Halloween's I think. It may have had something to do with being able to take advantage of my belly while costume-planning, but I think the best part was seeing Carson figure out what was going on. At 3:00 PM when we went to see Grammy he was quite confused and overwhelmed by all the trick or treaters, but by about 3:30 PM he had it all figured out and was quite good at grabbing a piece of candy and putting it in his trick or treat basket. Benji tried to carry it for him once it started getting heavier, but Carson was clutching it pretty hard--he wasn't about to risk losing all that fabulous candy.

We had fun planning our costumes too. It's not every year you're 36 weeks pregnant on Halloween, so we had to take advantage of that. Plus, Carson LOVES basketball so we figured it was a good way to involve both the kiddos. haha Carson already had his clothes and with a quick trip to Deseret Industries for Daddy and me we were able to make our costumes and only spent $5 total!!

Carson the Wonderful

Carson can't resist playing with rocks and dirt he finds along his way. In the top pic we were trying to walk home from visiting teaching and it took quite a while with all these rock gardens our neighborhood has.

This picture cracks us up. He looks like he's conquered that dirt pile and is winding up to throw his next handful of dirt onto the driveway. Our garden beds get turned over a lot. haha

As of late, Carson LOVES to read books! I love it too. With a big baby bump it's getting a bit harder to fit him on my lap, but it is so fun when he picks a book and backs onto my lap over and over again. One day we set a record and read 21 books over the course of the day. Usually we'll read some after diaper changes and before naps or bedtime.

As these next pictures show, one of Carson's favorite new activities is drawing/coloring. He does it with or without clothes, first thing in the morning and before bed at night. His favorite is for one of us to wrap our hand around his with the pencil in it and draw shapes over and over again. He gets so happy when he draws those shapes and now he notices circles, stars, flowers, squares, hearts, etc. all around us and in his books. He can even draw a good circle all by himself!!

This is his setup in the kitchen. Usually I feed him breakfast while he colors lots of fun pictures. We need lots of scratch paper all of a sudden!!

Our happy little artist.

I love how lately he likes to get on the floor and lay on his tummy with his cute little feet in the air while he colors or plays with cars.

I'm not sure how our morning routine's going to differ once "baby sister" is here, but I wanted to capture what it's like right now. I fix us breakfast (often toast or oatmeal) and we get to sit across from each other at this cutting board/pull out.

This is the wonderful view I have to start out each day! I know, I'm lucky.

Another new interest is watching whole videos (30 min.) of Baby Einstein by himself on the computer. He's even pretty good at not touching the keys now. I love just looking over and seeing that little body with his feet dangling in a grown up chair. He's totally glued to the screen!

Tonight I was holding Carson's little hand as he drifted off to sleep in the quiet. As with most nights, my heart felt like it was swelling inside me with all the immense love I feel for this boy. He is amazing to me and I really could never explain how deep the love I feel for him goes.

Time is quickly winding down to when we'll get to meet our "baby sister" and bring her home with us--and we can't wait!! But, I can't help but think (constantly) that my time with just my buddy, Carson is also winding down. Soon, my attention will be slightly more divided from what we've been used to for the past 18 months.
Each day I try to soak in all the little things that I love about hanging out with Carson and watching him grow. He is my buddy and I absolutely love that I get to hang out with him each and everyday--I never take that blessing for granted.

I don't want to forget these wonderful days and moments and have tried to take lots of pictures of our adventures. Carson turned 18 months old on the 25th. It seems like he's developed and grown so much in such a short time recently. I can hardly believe how fast time goes when I look back on pictures of him just a few months ago.

Some things I never want to forget about 18-month-old Carson:

• Since we've been drawing shapes, he recognizes them in books and toys and he can even recognize colors like blue and green when asked.
• I don't think he could pick an absolute favorite book, but the two about Thomas the Tank Engine would probably be near the top. We don't watch Thomas, but he loves him and recognizes him at the store.
  
• He is starting to play independently more and more. Things that will hold his attention are cars, race tracks, bouncy balls, stackable blocks, and toys that play music.
• He's very good at making mechanical sounds for cars and planes too.
  
• He loves to move "heavy" things (like packages and groceries) and stack them like he sees us do. Also, he just loves building towers out of anything. It's amazing what he'll find to stack and it's even more amazing how good he is at balancing relatively small objects on top of each other!
• He's been able to say "ball" (bah) and "Brindle" (Innel) for a few weeks now. However, just in the past week or so I've noticed that he's starting to imitate the beginning sounds of words we say. For example, if he wants his binky he'll say something like "ba ba ba" or for milk "meh meh". Last night I'm almost positive he said "six" and this morning I could swear I heard him say "oast" while eating his toast.
  
• He is a very sweet and sensitive boy. The other day I was crying and he wasn't quite sure at first whether to laugh or not. But, he realized I wasn't really laughing so he just wanted to sit with me and give me a hug while he laid his head on my shoulder. (I LOVE when he just wants to give me a hug to cheer me up). But then, I asked him to get me a tissue. Benji gave him one and told him to take it to Mommy. I tried to grab it from him to wipe my face and nose, but he wouldn't let me and instead began gently wiping my face for me--sooooooooo sweet!!
• Last night, we had had a long day and I got home after dark with him and my parents' dog, Brindle. I was trying to get us all in with the diaper bag and was feeling a little exasperated. Once we were all inside I set Carson down and just said, "Brindle, we need to feed you." I thought I'd get her food in a minute after putting a few things away. Then, I heard a noise and turned around to find that Carson had gone into the garage, gotten the bucket (it's pretty heavy for him) of Brindle's food and was trying to haul it into the kitchen for me. My heart just melted. Of course, he wanted to do it himself and refused help. But, he did end up getting it to me (with a few stray pieces on the floor along the way :).

Carson, I hope you never forget how much Daddy and I love you! You are such a wonderful boy and we feel so blessed each and every day that we get to be your parents. You bring a love and happiness to us that we'd never felt before. We can't wait for you to become a big brother in just a few weeks and are so glad your siblings have you to look up to. WE LOVE YOU!!