Christmas Time!

Christmas was great!  I didn't get very many pictures as I didn't use my camera much and when I did it died.  Oops!  I did get a few choice videos though!

First, while at the Great Canadian Barn Dance B&B Santa came and visited and left us a few treats on Christmas Eve before he made his rounds while we were sleeping!  My favorite was my niece telling Santa that she has been good.  Afterwards her eyes were just big and amazed and she could hardly believe that Santa had really come!

Next we have our re-enactment of the Nativity.  I loved watching Mary with Jesus (Taylor).  She sat there holding her for a long time after we finished.  All the little girls gathered around and cooed over Taylor.  Sorry if it is a bit shaky!

Lastly, but not the least, Taylor is officially a roller!  She has been working on it quite diligently this past week and now I have seen her roll from tummy to back and back to her tummy.  Oh, and this makes for a happy mama, Taylor is sleeping in Kimber's room now.  Yay!

Happy New Year's everyone!

Pee Wee...

Herman, that is.

Guess who reminds me of Pee Wee?  In most of the pictures we took that day Benson was doing his fake smile.  You add that to his glasses and the bow tie and we have Pee Wee.

Taylor on her blessing day.  I know I already posted about this but I got more pictures and wanted to share!

Kimber looking like the princess she is!  I love her dress.  Thanks Rachel for getting it for her!

This and That

I have avoided blogging lately as it required putting my pictures onto the computer which was by all means dead!  I am a little excited to announce that I got an early Christmas present which allows me to come back on here and share our lives with you.  It is great for me, I'll let you decide if it is worth while for you or not.

We are going back a little while to birthday season in our house for this one.  I love this video and had to share it.  I am toying with the idea of sending it in to AFV.

My SIL wanted to make Cookie Monster cupcakes and I graciously said that we could do them for McKay's birthday party gathering so I wouldn't have to think of something to do.  They turned out awesome... Thanks Rach!

McKay was pretty cute at Taylor's baby blessing.  He had an old camera and was taking pictures tourist style!

Sadly this is the best picture I have of Taylor the day of her blessing.  This is the dress that my Mom, Sister, Kimber and I were blessed in.  I am grateful that my Mom was able to find it and bring it just days after getting home from her mission.  It was great to see my parents again.  I really missed them.  It was almost as bad as when they went to Japan for a year.  Luckily I had my best friend living with me this time to help me miss them a little less... just a little.  Oh, and I guess having 4 kids around also helped distract me a bit.  No matter how I look at it though I am so grateful that they are home and look forward to spending Christmas with them!

Hmm, now I see that it is half past late o'clock and I need to get some beauty rest before my little sleepless beauty wakes up to eat.

Birthdays!

We have just finished Birthday season in our home!  Here are a couple of cute videos of my November birthday boys!

Happy birthday Daniel and McKay!  Who knew McKay was so awesome at blowing out candles?!

McKay loved blowing!  We are doing cake on Sunday night (they only got muffins on their bday) so he will have more fun blowing out candles then!

Last but certainly not least, my smiley baby.  I love her squinty eyes when she smiles!!

Rachel & Spencer

We had a bit of a busy weekend here.  It was a great kind of busy though!  Daniel's only sister got married on Saturday!  I can hardly believe she is married, but we are so happy that she has found Spencer.  There are a ton of pictures here, so enjoy!  

It was quite cold but they braved it for some pictures outside the Temple.

I love their candid faces in this one!

Mom and Dad with the newlyweds!

Kimber was a flower girl and has been so excited for the wedding.  Now she keeps asking if there are 3 weddings so she can wear her dress more.  She was also really excited to hold flowers and kept asking for them.  For some reason we wouldn't let her take them in the car with us.  By the end of the night they were pretty thrashed.

Kimber was pretty inseparable from Auntie Rachel.  During the program at the family dinner Kimber kept going up and sitting on Rachel's lap.

Smelling their flowers.

There is a really special bond between these two.  Benson kept asking to have a picture taken of him and Taylor.

I need to crop this one still but I love this one!

Bateman family.  This will most likely be the last full family picture for the next 2ish years with Jordan going on his mission soon.

The couples were told to kiss each other.  Poor Jordan missing out!

Bride and Groom with our family.  This is the only family picture we have right now so this will probably be our Christmas card... not to spoil the surprise or anything!

Bateman siblings.

Giving some attitude!

Feeling the love!

This was the best picture I got of my kids with Rachel and Spencer.

The previous picture was not good enough for Benson, he had to be holding Taylor.  I sure hope they keep this relationship as they get older.  It really just melts my heart watching him with her.

So this is the last I got before my camera died.  I wanted to film their family dinner for them but my camera had other ideas.  I guess that when Spencer and Rachel first started dating Spencer, the king of puns, mentioned that it would be funny to 'cut the cheese' instead of a cake when he got married.  Well some brie was at the wedding for them to cut.  So classy!

Congrats Rachel and Spencer!

Happy Halloween

We have been having so great Halloween fun around here this week.  Warning there are a few videos in this post!!

Getting our Pumpkin on!

Kimber got the little pumpkin from Rachel's Bridal Shower and wouldn't let us use it for the this.  When I told Daniel my idea all of a sudden she was cool with the big pumpkin eating her little one.  She carried her pumpkin around for 2 days, it was her treasure!

We brought out the costumes out for the kids to see the night before Halloween and they got pretty excited!

McKay being a puppy.

Princess Kimber, she was so excited to have a princess dress.

Hahaha!  This is my favorite!  Benson wasn't sure if he wanted to be Batman or a Vampire, specifically Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I told him he should be Batman while the costume still fit.

She is getting to be such a big girl.  I can hardly believe she will be 3 months old next week!!

Taylor and I chilled at home after doing a little Trick-or-Treating.

My cute little Taylor Monkey Mae.

McKay went out with the big kids around our complex but was pretty done.  I had him put his candy in a bowl while Benson and Kimber went out for more.

He kept putting his feet on top of the bowl and resting.  He really enjoyed getting to eat the candy!!

Kimber's incredible haul.

Benson's haul.

When Benson left for school this morning we had a layer of ice on our van.  I took this picture at 10:30 about 2 hours after he left.

This picture was just after 2.  I am loving the snow!!  I feel like we are going to have a real winter this year!!  Yay!  I was sad that the kids didn't get to go tobogganing last year.  This year for sure! 

Nutshell of October

I don't know where the last month has gone.  I keep avoiding the blog though because I put my pictures on our desktop and it is on it's last legs.  I avoid using it until necessary.  Hopefully soon I will have a new desktop I can use.  I sure hope Santa reads my blog! ;)

Have I mentioned that McKay wears glasses?  He got these a little over a month ago.  They last about 50 hours before the broke.  After he got them back they lasted 3 weeks.  Hopefully when we get them back they will last a bit longer!

I love this picture!  Auntie Rachel comes over once in a while for a pick me up with the kids.  Rachel is getting married in 12 days and Kimber is super excited to be her flower girl.  Keep a look out for pictures in the coming weeks!

Kimber performing for the camera.  She has started to copy Benson a lot so when he tells her to do a face she will do it.  My favorite is 'Squish face, Stretch face'.  She does this to me at night time and the way she says it cracks me up!

My McKay man.  Sometimes I feel like he gets forgotten on here.  Mom this shows his snaggle tooth I was telling you about.  He kept getting a bigger and bigger space until an extra tooth appeared.

My Benson boy showing off his second tooth that he lost.  He pulled this out while all the guys were at the Priesthood session of conference.  The rest of us had a good time here with Chinese food!

Kimber got her hair braided as part of the party.  Then her braids were braided and those were put into a ponytail.  She would not let me take the pony out at bed time though.  What a cutie!

They got some story time with Grandma!

There is no picture at the beginning of this video, it will kick in part way into it.  McKay was singing to get me up one morning.  Personally I just love his song!

This is the same morning when I went to get Kimber up.  Not quite the singing get up but still my cutie.

Taylor has really started to talk the last couple of weeks.  If I coo at her she will talk back which is super fun!  She is happy, smiley little girl!  She will be 3 months old in just about a week.  The time has really flown by way too quickly.  She has gotten out of the newborn stage which makes me kinda sad.  It is fun to see her looking around and cooing a lot though.

Benson is doing well with school.  He doesn't like going into school though.  Once he is there he does great but getting him to leave us when we drop him off has been tricky.  We have given the kids one point to use on media for how old they are.  Kimber is 3 so she gets 3 points, Benson is 5 so he gets 5 points.  We have resorted to taking points away if he puts up a huge fuss.  Hopefully this will pass soon!

We are getting geared up for Halloween here.  Daniel has a costume idea that he can wear to work and the kids have their costumes together.  I am trying to decide if I will dress up this year or not.  I am fresh out of ideas though.

Last but certainly not least, my brother in law got his mission call this past week.  On February 27 he will be reporting to serve in the Jamaica, Kingston Mission.  I had feeling he would be on an island, although I was thinking more South Pacific than in the Caribbean!  Daniel guessed Central America so between the two of us we kinda got it.  Congrats Jordan!  You are going to be an amazing missionary!

Kindergarten

My little man is in Kindergarten!  He is too grown up!

Here he is on Wednesday.  They did a staggered start so there were 5 kids plus parents there on Wednesday.  We got a tour of the school and filled out some papers and stuff like that.

Benson all ready to go to school.  He likes to have 'Daddy' hair when he goes to school.

 Right before we took these pictures he found out his tooth is starting to grow in!

Daniel took Benson to school this morning.  Benson knew exactly where to go to get to his outside door.  We saw where it was from inside the school only but he knew where to take Daniel.

I love this video!

Pointing at his door.

Lined up waiting to go into the school.  I am excited that I can drop him off outside and won't have to drag the kids into the school to pick him up and drop him off!

Last but not least, proof that McKay does love his little sister.  He sat on the love seat holding Taylor for a good 15 or 20 minutes.  The only reason he stopped was so he could eat lunch!

My two babies lovin' each other!

Taylor's Story

Has it already been 3 1/2 weeks?  It is hard to believe that Taylor is that old.  She is doing well staying awake in the evening so night time is pretty good for us.  She sleeps usually from 10 until 3:30 and then gets up at 6:30ish again.  I really can't complain about that!  Well as for Taylor's story that I said I would write about some other time I will share now.

I will skip through most of the false labor part as that went on for 11 days.  Not fun!  The Tuesday before she was born I was getting intense contractions that were 5 minutes apart lasting for a minute so we went into the hospital.  While I was there the contractions got to be 2 minutes apart, more intense and lasting the same amount of time.  Unfortunately I was only at a 2 (later I found out I was a 1 but they didn't want to tell me that) so I was sent home as I was not in 'active' labor.  Upon our return home the contractions stopped.

I had a few restless nights and days with contractions going for 24 hours.  I didn't want to go back into the hospital with out my water breaking because I didn't want to be sent home again so I gritted my teeth and bore through it.  By Saturday I was determined to have Taylor and couldn't stand the on and off contractions.  Daniel and I went into the hospital that night and nothing had changed so they couldn't keep me but the same Dr was there that had checked me on Tuesday and she scheduled a cervidel induction for the following Monday.  Thank you!!  They gave me some morphine and graval and sent me home.  I had the best nights sleep that night!  I really enjoy morphine as a pain killer, especially when it lets me sleep!

Monday came and oh, was I ever ready to get going!  I had a great nurse working with me and she made sure to get me admitted so that I wouldn't have to leave the hospital again after having the cervidel put in.  8:20 I had the cervidel in and then I layed around for a couple of hours to let it get to work.  In that time they kept monitoring Taylor's heartbeat on and off but she was being tricky so Daniel had to hold the monitor on my tummy.  We walked the halls for a bit and then got moved into our Labor/Delivery room.

I got some morphine for pain a little while after being in my room.  The nurse was trying to convince me to use laughing gas while the morphine kicked in or instead of.  I knew I didn't like it from when I had my wisdom teeth taken out but tried it anyways,  I was told to try it for 5 contractions but after one I was hyperventilating!  So I stuck with my favorite labor buddy of morphine!

My MIL had come after we got into our LD room and spent the afternoon with us.  She had a bit of a time crunch though as she was hosting an engagement party for my SIL at 4:00.  Around 3:30 I got checked out and was at a 4, so yea for progress!  They broke my water and I was sleepy and in some pain but not much was happening so my MIL left to get the party going and make an appearance before coming back to the hospital.  Around 4:30 I told Daniel I needed him to call his Mom and let her know I was progressing (6 cm) and would be having the baby soon.  About 15 mintues later I told him to call again and tell her it was happening!  She had just left to come back to the hospital.

I told the nurse (at this point it was a new nurse) that I needed to push.  She kept putting me off but finally checked and said it was ok to push.  The Dr came quickly and 5 pushes later Taylor was born at 4:52.  Once everything started Taylor came really quickly.  She didn't have any time to get misshapen or anything.  She came out at a nice 21" long and 8 lbs 9oz.  Not my biggest or smallest baby so she fits right in with the rest of the kidlets!

My MIL got back to the hospital about 20 minutes after Taylor was born.  Unfortunately she missed the whole birth but it was great to have her there through the afternoon and then helping out afterwards.  My SIL Rachel and her fiance Spencer came over and met Taylor.

All was well with us until about midnight.  A nurse came in and told us we needed to have Taylor tested for HIV since I hadn't been tested during my pregnancy.  I had declined to be tested as I am not in a high risk situation for getting it.  The on call pediatrician was insisting that Taylor needed to be tested and that I needed to stop nursing her until the test came back.  I was willing to let Taylor get tested but I refused to stop nursing for a number of reasons.  To be completely honest the main reason I needed to nurse her was to really bond with her.  Between the surprise of the pregnancy and frustration of false labor and the difficulty of the pregnancy in between those I needed to bond with her!  After going back and forth and Daniel eventually  talking to the Dr we had Taylor tested and we signed a waiver saying we were going to nurse her against the Dr's advice.  By the time they took her to the NICU and drew her blood it was after 1 AM.  A little while later the nurse came in again and said that "Babies blood was too thick and clotted" so they needed to draw blood again.  AKA they used the wrong topper on the tube and it had caused the blood to clot.  Taylor was taken back to the NICU and they drew her blood again.  It was after 2 by the time she got back.  I had stayed up until she came back the first time but I couldn't do it the second time around.

We were released the next day after more fiasco from the pediatrician.  She wanted to keep us there until the test results came back.  She also asked for permission to test my blood for HIV.  Daniel said yes as long as she released us.  The Dr called us later that day and told me that Taylor's blood came back negative.  I felt like telling her 'Ya think!' but bit my tongue and said thank you.  When she had come to check Taylor out Daniel asked her about Taylor's tongue being tongue tied.  She said it wasn't an issue but last week when we went to our appointment she said it was a grade 3 tie and needed to be snipped.  We are finally figuring out how to nurse again!  Needless to say we will not be going back to this Dr again!

Well that is how our Taylor came to us and all the surrounding story.  We are so in love with her and can't get enough.  At her Dr's appointment last Thursday she had already gained 1/2 lbs from her birth weight.  She is a strong little girl and loves to look around.  Well this momma needs to go feed a little girl who thinks she is starving!

August catch up!

I really don't know where the month went!  We have had a lot going on here!  Of course the obvious, Taylor was born!

August 9 Bens pulled his first tooth out.  He showed me that he could pull it down horizontally so I told him to yank it out.  After a pathetic attempt I told him what yank meant and then he was a pro!  Since then the tooth next to the one he pulled has become loose.  How did he get so old?

McKay actually does like his sister!  I can't get it on camera very well but here he is with Taylor!

McKay was a little tired at dinner one day.

Bens is great with Taylor.  He loves to hold her.  On Sunday he held her for close to an hour for us.

Taylor after her first Sunday.

That about covers the month.  I guess not too much happened but it seems like a lot after having our little angel!

A Camping We Will Go!

No, we aren't crazy, we didn't go camping with a newborn!  Gramps took the older two kids camping over night.  They had a blast!

McKay thinks he is a  big kid.  He gets into lots of trouble because of it but he looked so cute wearing the backpack!

Bens ready to go camping.  You can even see his missing tooth in this picture!  Such a big boy!

Kimber decked out for her trip.  I loved how outdoorsy she was!

Kids with Gramps ready to go.

McKay settled himself in the car.  We had a 45 minute tantrum when we took him inside.

And away they went!

They went on a walk by a creek, had Subway for lunch and roasted weinies for dinner.  Grandma went down to the campground for dinner and had s'mores for dessert with them.  They sure loved their special trip with Gramps.  Daniel and I enjoyed being down to 2 kids and remembering how much simpler that was!

Newborn Photo Shoot

Thanks to Daybreak Photography for capturing my little Taylor for me!!  These were taken last Friday and Erin did an amazing job!  Unfortunately McKay wouldn't cooperate with the camera... again!  Enjoy my little angel!!