Christmas time is here!

We had the best Christmas.  I love spending holidays with family and all the craziness and excitement of the people you love being all together in one place, but there is definitely something special about spending that time in a more quiet setting with just your own little family.  

Santa had come while we were all asleep and lucky for s he was able to pull through for Sienna on her bike request minus a bell, which has since been purchased by mom and dad.

Sienna and Shelby went through their stockings and Sienna was so excited about her Sophia the First bike complete with a spot for Speedy.  I love watching Sienna open gifts because she is still so excited and grateful for everything whether its a book, socks or new bike...everything is awesome. :)

I also was very excited that Santa got Shelby Despicable Me 2 in her stocking, because Sienna had gotten the first one in her stocking her first Christmas.  It was too perfect.

 

Sienna all bundled up and testing out her new bike in the garage because it had snowed the night before, just in time for us to have a white Christmas!

 

It was such a fun and low key day celebrating and relaxing with our little ones and feeling the spirit of Christ in our home as we reflected on the true meaning of the day.

Getting Ready for Christmas

There is always things to do in order to get ready for Christmas!  The first weekend in December we decided that we were more than ready to start decorating.  While most of the decorating process didn't get documented I had to capture this moment when Daddy helped Sienna put the star on top of our tree.  She was so excited!

 

We also had to write our letter to Santa, of course.  Luckily for us Santa has his very own mailbox near us that makes it super easy to get our mail to the North Pole.  He even sent Sienna a letter back telling her how excited he was to stop by our house on Christmas!  This year Sienna's main request was for a bike with a basket for her stuffed animal Speedy and a bell so that I could hear her riding.

 Sienna also was asked to participate in our ward Christmas program as an angel.  She was SO excited during the week leading up to the program and then the day came and the stage fright hit.  Luckily, some very sweet girls were able to convince her that it was going to be okay and she was her regular performing self by the time it started.  She didn't have any lines, she just had to stand there and look cute, which she did perfectly.

In the group picture above she is the little small fry in the middle.
We also had to make sure the girls wore their beautiful matching dresses from Grandma and Grandpa on Christmas Sunday to church.

It is so fun carrying on traditions and having the chance to create new ones with my girls.  Christmas time is so much more magical when you have kids.

Sienna turns 4!

 My big girl turned four!  I have a hard time wrapping my head around it every once in a while.One her actually birthday she had a special mommy day where we went out for lunch and played in the snow while Daddy worked.  She also got to open her new pajamas the night before and we opened presents from grandma and us when Daddy got home.  

 

A couple of days later the Esslingers and the Pollmanns came over to celebrate with cupcakes and ice cream.  She wanted everyone to be able to decorate their cupcake with jellybeans so we did exactly that.  She also got to open a few more presents from her cousins and Dave and Janie.

 

 

She is seriously the best. 

 She LOVES her stuffed animals and is really starting to blossom as far as trying new things and making new friends.  She loves to sing, dance and create beautiful masterpieces.  Her preferred medium for her art projects are stamps and paint.  She is a really good big sister and tries her best to be helpful.  

 She is sassy, silly and very sensitive.  She has a great memory and often quotes movies and funny tv commercials.  She's got a serious sweet tooth and zero patience.  She is the queen of snuggling Mommy and loves Home Depot trips with Daddy.  

Sienna loves fashion and her new favorite thing is mismatched socks and/or pajamas.  Everything must be accessorized and she often asks me if I think she is "gorgest".  

 I think that she is one of the most "gorgest" girls inside and out.

Family Pictures

We were able to get some family pictures done in the middle of November from my very talented friend Katie at Two Rivers Photography.  Shelby mostly did great, but she spent most of the photo session with a pacifier and of course Sienna was the perfect little model.  

I love them!

Random Photos: October and November Edition

Here are some of my favorite "everyday" pictures that happened during the months of October and November.  

The Adventures of Sienna:

Ninja Sienna

Snow Day and making colored snow!

First real visit to the dentist...

Bubble popping! (She played with this bubble wrap for weeks!)

Sister love!

The Adventures of a mostly sleeping Shelby:

Newly home

 

Happy Due Date!

Trying out this whole being awake thing...

First day of church

 

Being awake is over-rated.

Shelby's Blessing Weekend

 The first weekend of November we were blessed to have most of my siblings making the trek to Idaho to meet Shelby, as well as be there for her blessing.  Sienna, of course, loved having all the extra attention during their short visit with us.  She even got to go on a special date with Uncle Bubba.  A date all about her that included a merry go round, the girl was in heaven.

 

After they got back from their date they joined us all at Chili's for lunch. (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!) We loved getting to spend some quality time with the people that I love the most.  We didn't do anything big, but hanging out with my family is one of my favorite things.

One of the big reasons for the visit was the blessing of miss Shelby.  We decided to bless her at home due to Nick's work schedule (he works every other Sunday).  I loved having such a special event be in our home and to have that special spirit there.  Nick, as expected, gave a beautiful blessing and Shelby was a good girl for the whole thing.

We are so grateful for this new beautiful baby girl we have been blessed with.  We are also so happy and grateful for the people who were able to come and be apart of this special day and for those that couldn't come, but where there in spirit. :)

October

 October was the fastest and slowest month ever...I guess having a newborn makes things feel that way sometimes.  It's definitely different with two.  I remember with Sienna we rarely went anywhere for the first several weeks, but with Shelby a mixture of not wanting Sienna to miss out on things and being more prepared with what expected lead us out of the house more than I anticipated.  Daddy was definitely good when it came to making sure Sienna still got out and had fun.  Here's a few pictures of the two pals out a band show:

  

We all even made it to the pumpkin patch.  It was an abbreviated trip compared to last year, but we still hit all the important things: hayride, corn pit, push carts, pony ride, petting zoo and of course pumpkin picking!  Sienna didn't love the corn pit as much this year, but was so excited to ride a horse again.  I'm pretty sure that if that was the only thing we had done it would have been enough and Shelby slept the whole time.

 Our awesome cat jack o lantern, because that silly big girl of mine loves herself some cats.

 We also made it out to the ward trunk or treat!  Nick had to work on Halloween so I packed up the girls and we went trick or treating with the Esslingers.  Sienna loved going around to all the houses with her cousins and I loved having my sister as back up just in case the little one decided to be crazy. Sienna was pretty content being Cinderella, until she saw all the Elsas and then she decided I had ruined her life by making her be Cinderella which she made sure to tell me all about.  Having a bucket fun of candy helped her get over it though.

 

We had a very eventful month!

Birth Story Part Two: Shelby is Here!

After our failed induction Nick decided to put himself back on the schedule at work for the following Tuesday and the weekend that followed.  He did mention however that he hoped she would come before the weekend so he could watch General Conference and Sienna had mentioned that she thought the baby would come on October 1st.  I thought that all of these ideas would be fantastic!  Well, on Wednesday, October 1st at around 7am my water broke!  It was very similar to when my water broke with Sienna, just kind of a slow leak.  We called my midwife who told me to come in so she could confirm that it actually happened and then she would send us to walk around until contractions started.  Sure enough she confirmed that my water had indeed broken and sent us on our way to try and get active labor started.  Our first stop was to get a donut and set Sienna up with Andi since I was hoping that contractions would start soon due to my experience with Sienna's delivery.

Nick and I walked around until we couldn't any more.  We headed home, ate lunch, Nick finished his redbox movie and still nothing.

I called my midwife and told her that we were coming in in hopes that they would be able to do something to get the party started.  She agreed and so we checked into Labor and Delivery around 3pm.  We decided to try a different labor inducing medication this time that could be administered every four hours in hopes that it would work better than pitocin had.  Well, after 8 hours, nothing was happening and I was literally about to lose my mind, Nick was definitely not far behind in this feeling either.  My midwife suggested we try pitocin again and I told her that I would try until 7am the next morning but after that it would have been 24 hour after my water broke and I wanted a c-section.  I was beyond finished at this point.  She agreed to this plan, but we decided to try and be as optimistic as possible that it would work this time.

Nothing was happening until 6:30 when the nurse came in to up my dose one last time and my contractions all of a sudden became very intense.  I told her that I needed Tamra, my midwife, to come and check me so that I could decide on stopping pitocin (no progress) or get the epidural.  She left to find Tamra.  Little did I know at the time Tamra was stalling because she knew that if I wanted pain medication it was working but she wanted me to make the decision.  I got to the point I couldn't wait anymore, sneaky midwife, and asked for the epidural.  After that was done she checked me and I was at 5cm and she discovered that I still had a forebag of water that had not broken.  She told me to try and get some rest and that if it didn't rupture on its own she would break it around 11:30.  Everyone seemed to be in agreement that Shelby would be here by 2pm...except me.  I was pretty sure she was never coming.  

I was able to take a nap for a few hours and when I woke up the nurse told me she had a feeling we were nearing "go time".  I was skeptical but was feeling a little pressure so she decided to check me and then she would let Tamra know what progress was made.  I was at 9cm AND she accidentally broke the forebag of water when she checked me!  The look on her face when it happened may have been the second best thing that happened that day.  As soon as Tamra got there we decided to start pushing and about an hour and half later Shelby was finally here!

Shelby Mae Hudson
October 2, 2014 at 11:38am
7lbs .8 oz and 19.5 inches

I was so relieved that she finally decided to grace us with her presence!  She had a pretty pathetic cry at first so they did some suction and even let RT daddy help, other than that she was perfect!  Miss Sienna was able to come and visit around dinner time with Janie who had picked her up from Andi that morning.  When Janie asked her if she was ready to meet her new baby sister Sienna responded with "I have been ready my whole life to meet her!"  Luckily, her excitement hasn't changed too much since we have been home.  We feel so blessed to finally have this sweet girl in our home and are loving seeing the bond between her and Sienna grow.

Birth Story Part One: The Epic Fail

For the last few weeks of my pregnancy I had been having issues with my blood pressure.  Luckily, I didn't show any other serious symptoms that sometimes accompany hypertension.  However, my midwife and the other doctors decided that it would be better safe than sorry and schedule an induction on Friday (38 weeks and 3 days).  We all felt good about the decision due to Sienna's early arrivial, I was dilated to almost 4cm and 70% effaced.  It couldn't have been better timing. Nick was already scheduled to take the following two weeks off and we would be able to call Nick's mom and let her know exactly when this baby was coming!  

Friday morning came and we went in to the office had a quick appointment and then headed over to Labor and Delivery.  We started pitocin at about 10am and then began the waiting game.  I started having contractions every two to three minutes consistently but they were very weak and half the time I didn't even realize they were happening.  I did a lot of walking, bouncing on the birthing ball and waiting...we did a lot of waiting. However, every time they checked my progress, there was none being made.

After being on Pitocin ALL day we made the decision to give my body a break, get some rest, let the medicine wear off and then start again at 5 am the next morning.  I may or may not have cried about it due to hormones and frustration.  We started again the next morning with the only success being that I felt more of the contractions this time, but they still weren't strong enough to move things along.  Unfortunately, breaking my water wasn't a great option at the time because baby girl was still too high and the last thing we wanted was for something to come before her head, like the cord, and then have to have a c-section.  The decision was made to stop the pitocin and head home on Saturday afternoon.  I would have to be monitered with biweekly appointments but the hope would be that she would come on her own and if not they would schedule another induction on my actual due date in hopes that she would have moved down into a better position.

We were so frustrated, mad, sad, and tired.  I couldn't believe that after two days of being in the hospital we wouldn't be leaving with a baby in our arms.  I knew that it could be much worse though, so I put on the best face I could at the time and accepted that while it wasn't ideal it was the best decision in the circumstance.  The worst part was that Nick's mom had come up with her boyfriend Gary and had to leave after a few days.  It was so upsetting to me that she had come all this way and now would probably not get a chance to meet the baby before she had to leave.

This was my "I was induced for two days and still came home like this" picture...

We tried to make the best out of the situation though and spent as much quality time together as we could.  We shopped, and baked and played.  Nick's mom thoroughly spoiled not only the girls but us as well.  I truly believe that I have never had so much food in my house at one time!  We loved our time with Grandma and Gary and even though Shelby didn't make her arrival until after they left I was so happy that they came and Sienna got some serious love in before she became a big sister.  

Grandma Hudson and Gary

 Fun shopping at Target

 Making cookies with Grandma and Mom

 We love Mama Hudson!

We can't wait for spring to come when both girls will get to spend time with both sets of grandparents! 

Stay tuned for Shelby's actual arrival!

Last Random Summer Post

We took Sienna to a Frisbee Dog Challenge a little while ago.  We may have been the only ones there without a dog, but Sienna absolutely LOVED seeing all the dogs.

Waiting for the competition to start:

Meeting a new friend

We (by we I mostly mean Nick) have being doing various projects around the house.  Nick and Sienna went to Home Depot together and picked up all the materials to make a board that Sienna can now hang all her art work from.  She even got to pick out the paint color and help paint it.  In case you were wondering she calls this color purplely, purple, purple purp.

Daddy used the rest of the paint to paint her dresser drawers which turned into a bit of a project.  We are so glad and thankful that we have such a handy guy around here. 

Spirit of Boise Night Glow

 We went to the Spirit of Boise Balloon Festival again this year!  It is a really cool, free family friendly event and this year was just as good as last year.  We showed up early to get a good viewing spot amongst the big crowd and while we waited we played games, mostly the hand slapping game:

 Daddy even got us ice cream!

We hung out by the Coca Cola Balloon and they played the song Happy while all the little ones danced along.

Waiting for it to get dark so we could watch the Balloons glow

 Some of our favorite pictures of the hot air balloons!

Sienna was pretty tired by the time it was over this year so we decided that next year we will probably go to one of the early morning lift offs instead of the glow and get some breakfast together afterward.  I'm excited to experience this fun event in a new way next year!