Date night week 2

We had an amazing time at pf changs. We had a yummy appetizer and delicious alcohol! The only bummer was tavian woke up and started crying when he saw the babysitter telling her "only mommy can put me to bed". Lol it broke my heart! We came home a bit early but still had a great time.

Weekly Date Nights

I know, I know...I dont really exist in blog land anymore.  I wish I could say I was going to be making a huge change sometime soon, but truthfully, I have no idea if I'll be able to blog more regularly.  But I do hope to stick to jotting a quick blurb and posting some pictures each week of mine and my hubby's weekly date nights. We have recently decided that date nights are too important and we haven't been making them as big of a priority as we should have.  So that is all going to change! We have the babysitter scheduled every week for..well hopefully a very long time. and the weeks that she can't be there we are going to try and do something creative and fun at home. Like last week. Margs on the back patio, Pandora music,a shot of rum to keep things interesting :), and a whole lot of fun on the long board together. Enjoy the photos of our fun date night!....Ok, so I uploaded these photos off my phone and this is how they came out...and I don't know how to rotate them.  So enjoy the mess, and if you have any ideas of how to get around this problem, please let me know!

My Baby's Heart

Tavian and I have a lot of games that we love to play together.  One of them goes a little something like this:

"Momma, I fell" (and he throws himself willingly onto the ground, laying flat on his back)

"Oh no, you fell?  Are you ok?  Let me check!"

As I kneel over him, I do a series of checks to make sure he is ok.  I open his eyes, one at a time and take a good look.  I look into his ears..and I "smell" them too because I know it tickles him!  Then I stick my finger under his arm to make sure he doesn't have a fever.  I tap my finger on his belly and tell him it sounds good.

And lastly, and most importantly to me, I listen to his heart.  As I put my ear to his chest I say, "ba boom ba boom ba boom".  And although we are just playing a silly game, every time as I make the sounds of his heart, I truly listen to the beautiful sounds of his beating heart.  His beautiful heart.  And I am reminded of the first time I heard that heart beating.  He was so little...this new life within me, and yet his same, beautiful heartbeat filled the doctors room.  Cole and I were holding our breath in anticipation, filled with excitement and anxiousness as we waited for those sounds of hope...sounds of life!

Praise God for my baby boy and for his beating heart.

Praise God for a silly game that brings music to my ears, and reminds me to thank God for the miracle of life!

Thankful for my Bestie

My best friend Amy turns 26 today.

I am so happy to have the opportunity to celebrate with her and rejoice that she is in my life.  She truly is a blessing!

In case you don't already know her, I'll give a quick overview.  She is passionate, loving, giving, smart, laugh til you cry funny, sarcastic, and BEautiful! (there is oh so much more)

I remember around a year ago, after her 25th birthday, that she told me this was the year she was going to get her life in order.  The year she was going to make changes and pursue dreams.  I didn't necessarily know how serious she was at the time, but I was excited for her!  I have and always will want the very best for her.  I was proud of her for wanting amazing, beautiful things out of life.  Proud because you may remember this post a few years ago that I wrote the day her dad died.  She went through such a horrific experience and had reasons to give up, or to just except that the best of life had come and gone.  But she didn't.  In fact, I have seen her stand taller, try harder, give more, and love more ferociously then I have prior to that event.  How inspiring is that?!?

She is the kind of friend that pushes me to be a better person.  I know she loves me and is there for me and wants good things for me.  She loves my family...each of  us as individuals, and we each indivdually love her.  I am so happy little Felicity has Amy as her Godmother...Amy is a prayer warrior, and I know she has my little girl in her daily prayers.  What a lucky little girl I have!

In the past 7 months Amy has been on an amazing journey.  When she said this would be the year she would take life by the horns and run, she truly meant it.  And I can't tell you the number of people she has inspired in the process.  In these 7 months she has lost over 100 lbs.  Yes, you did in fact read that correctly!  And no, there is no gimmick.  She was worked her butt off.  She eats healthy and works out every day.  And I have never seen her happier.  And if her weight loss wasn't enough of a lifestyle change in itself, it really is just the tip of the ice berg.  She has confronted demons and hurts from her past, she has begun to dream big, and she has made huge strides in achieving those dreams.  She has softened her heart and made herself vulnerable to all the good that God would have for her in this life.  And I am so thankful to have witnessed it all!

I know I can't do it the justice it deserves, so why don't you head on over to her fab blog and check it all out for yourself.  Trust me, you won't leave uninspired!

I love you Amy.  I am so proud of all you have accomplished.  Thank you for loving me.  You are loved and cherished by so many...and the best part is I think you believe that more now then you ever have before.  Praise God :)

Happy Birthday, My Friend!  May this coming year be even brighter!!!

One of my faves.  Ames and Felicity!

A Pin Come True: DIY Air Freshener

Ok, I was really excited when I saw this Pin.

I love easy DIY projects, especially ones that are so useful in the home.  Candles and air fresheners can get pretty pricey so I thought this could be the perfect solution...especially for all the bathrooms since they are smaller spaces.

I already had a mason jar, baking soda, and I even already have the essential oils because I use them for some of my massage therapy stuff.  I also had extra scrapbook paper laying around so it took me a matter of minutes to follow the steps and assemble my air freshener.

The problem?..it doesn't work!  You can't smell anything unless you put your nose up to it.  I am very dissapointed!  Part of me wants me to tell you not to waste your time doing something that doesn't work...but the other part of me wants you all to try it to see if I'm crazy and maybe doing something wrong!  I want this to work so I want to know how to fix it!

It doesn't say you have to use a certain size mason jar, but I started wondering if mine was too big.  That could be the case, even though mine is still a mini jar size, but I don't want to go buy a different jar and have it not work again.

Well, there you have it.  This is the kind of feedback that will hopefully save all of you some time!  I'll let you know if I try it again and get different results!

My Two Year Old

Tavian turned Two on March 7th.  Is that seriously even possible?  I can't believe how fast he is growing up.  We watched his birth tape (a tradition we will do every birthday), and it was so wonderful and emotional.  Our lives changed so much in that moment...the world got better and brighter with his beautiful soul entering it.  As quickly as it has all gone, it was still a little crazy to watch his birth tape and realize that I have done that whole birthing thing twice in less then two years...that is crazy talk!

No matter how big he gets, he will always be my baby :)

We celebrated Tavian's birthday with lots of family and friends and it was really wonderful.  We decided to rent out Pump it Up for his party because it was too cold to have it at a park, but I also felt too overwhelmed to host it at our house.  And let me tell you, it ended up being a great decision.  Not only did everyone have a great time jumping around and going down the big slide (we even held an adult relay through the obstacle course...haha), but it was so nice not having to clean up the house or make any food and have any dishes afterwards.  It was totally stress free!

It was so fun watching Tavian play with all of his friends.  He is seriously just the sweetest, most hilarious little kid and I am honored to call him mine!

He was loving his Elmo Cupcakes!

On his actual birthday we all went to ice cream with my Dad and my sister and her family.  Tavian loved the special time with his cousins!  He got plenty of wonderful gifts.  I was able to find an amazing kitchen on Craigslist, and since I paid full price they gave me an outdoor playhouse too!  Talk about a great deal :)  He loves the kitchen and the playhouse a lot and it is so fun watching him use his imagination in the kitchen.

I wish I could remember all the sweet, funny things he has been doing lately.  Here are a few:

*The other day he looked at me, stroked my face and said, "Mama beautiful!"  Talk about melting my heart!
*He wakes up every morning saying, "Dada,where are you?  Please help, Dada."
*He always raises his food and drink, touches it to ours, and exclaims, "Cheers!"
*He has started to sing his ABC's
*He is loving playing with his friends, especially Cash and Dominick.  All the time he'll say, "Play Cash, today? and Sydnie, too? (Cash's mommy)"  If I tell him not today he always says, "next week?"  Such a smart kiddo!
*At bedtime I ask him how much I love him.  He stretches out his arms as far as he can as says, "thiiis much!" And then I say, "at least!"  Then he says he loves me more and I say I love him most.
*He has started making the sign of the cross and praying with us at meals and bedtime
*He is so sweet to his baby sister and says the funniest things to her.  "Hi, sister!", "Hi, baby girl", "Don't cry, sister"...lol, I wonder where he gets all of that from!
*He is such a whiz at puzzles.  It seriously amazes me!  He can put a brand new puzzle together super fast without any help!
*We sing all the time together.  He loves Its Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, If You're Happy and You Know it, and Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  I love hearing his little voice chiming in!

As part of our birthday traditions, Cole and I recorded a video message for him.  One day we will complile all of them and give them to him.  I'm sure it will be pretty funny!!  And I read to him, On the Night You Were Born, by Nancy Tillman, something I plan on making a tradition from this year forward.  We love all of her books, but this is perfect for birthdays.  If you have never read it, you should.  Such a sweet book.  It was so special reading it to him, and the end of the book pretty much sums it up:

"Heaven blew every trumpet
and played every horn
on the wonderful, marvelous
night you were born."

My Sweet Tavey Love,
Always remember how much I love you.  Always remember that you are precious, and cherished, and wanted.  Remember that you have a purpose in this life and you are here for a reason.  Know that I am praying for you all of your days.  Praying that you are faithful to the Truth no matter the cost, and praying that you will always stay close to Jesus in all that you do!  God Bless You, Sweet Boy :)

Turns Out I'm Old

Guess who played in their first indoor soccer game last night?

This old lady, that's who!

So on the one hand you all should be super proud of me because I have wanted to bet back into soccer for years, but it was always impossible for me to find a team to play on.  I have been telling everyone I know for the longest time that if they ever hear of a team coming together to let me know cause I want to play.  Well, my good friend Stacey followed through and two weeks ago informed me that I could play indoor with her team and that our first game would be April 1st.

You know when you want something really bad, then you get it, and then you aren't so sure anymore?  Yeah, that definitely happened.  I do want to play, but all week I was psyching myself out because I have every reason not to put myself through it.  Like the fact that I'm exhausted!!  And I just had a baby less then 4 months ago.  And that means I have done anything physically active in at least a year (but lets be honest, it has been longer then that!)  And I have just been really overwhelmed lately with life.  So adding soccer games on Sunday nights seemed to be a little much.

But it was what I had been wanting for so long.  So I said yes anyway.

After the initial "yes" I found out that it was a co-ed, competitive league...super!

The good news is that I survived last night.  But seriously, I thought I was going to die.  Turns out we only had one girl substitute, so all of the girls playing thought they were going to die.  It was so so rough, and I truly can't tell you how old I feel.  At one point i was sure I was going to vomit, but by the grace of God the urge passed!  I kept telling my feet to move, but it was like my body was in slow motion!  It is crazy not being able to do something when the last time I was doing it I was pretty darn good!  But it kind of makes sense when I did the math...it has been 8 years since I have played soccer, and I have only ever played in one indoor game!  YIKES!  

I know it will get better over the next few weeks as I get more accustomed to moving my body, lol, but in the meantime I am going to pay for it.  Today has been pretty rough...I feel sore everywhere!  At least I'm accomplishing something that was on my "to do" list for the past eight years!

When did I get so old?!?

(i should mention one of the best parts of playing was seeing how excited Tavian was about it.  And hearing the "Go Mommy's" from the sideline, and having him run into my arms after the game.  And hearing him keep talking about it today.  So cute!)

Fajita Bag

Ok, I didn't see this on Pinterest, but it is something I did the other night after I was writing about the smoothie bags.

I am all about homemade dinners but I'm also all about making dinner prep as easy as possible...especially because I'm always trying to keep two kiddos occupied at the same time.  Anything that is a time saver is a friend of mine!

Cole and I love to eat fajitas, but sometimes it seems a bit overwhelming to me because there is a lot of chopping involved.  No, it isn't hard at all, but it can be time consuming when I have Tavian impatiently waiting for me to play with him!

I basically just decided to chop and freeze what I could in advance!  The best part about this too is that I was able to wait for a big sale on peppers which ends up saving me money, instead of planning for fajitas one week but finding out they aren't on sale.  Then my options are spend more then I should that week, or have to figure something else out last minute!

This last week red peppers were on sale 3/$1 and green peppers were on sale .49 cents each.  I bought a lot of them along with some onion and got chopping!

Now I have freezer bags full of onion, red pepper, and green pepper.  When I plan for fajitas I can thaw the chopped veggies and meat at the same time, throw it all in the skillet, and quickly chop a few tomatoes.

I'm pretty excited about it :)

...Maybe you have to be a mom to find these simple time savers exciting...

A Pin Come True: Uncooked Spaghetti

This Pin is so simple, but I had never heard of it before, and I am really excited about it.  It's the little things, ya know?

Let me ask you...

Have you ever thrown out a candle because you had burned it down so far that it was just becoming too hard to light?  Well, maybe you have a hand held lighter for those hard to reach wicks, but I don't!  And it has happened to me a lot.  Or I have been trying to light many candles on a cake and have had to go through like 6 matches, not to mention that it is just a big pain in the butt!

Not anymore, my friends.

Just take a piece of uncooked spaghetti and light it and you are set to light whatever else you need!  I tried it immediately after seeing the Pin, and it worked wonderfully!

Hopefully someone out there thinks this is as cool as I do :)

A Pin Come True: Smoothie Bag

Have you all seen the Pin for freezer smoothies?..(aka smoothies in a bag..that is what I call them!)

It was one of the first Pins I saw when I signed up for Pinterest, and I made some soon after that!  Tavian loves smoothies and I love making them for him, but I don't love that it can be pretty time consuming and that you need to have a lot of ingredients on hand to make it work.

Well, not anymore :)

The best part of the smoothie bag idea is that almost all the ingredients are frozen ahead of time, including the yogurt.  I took regular vanilla yogurt, although you could use any kind, and froze it in an ice cube tray.  I also buy large amounts of fruit when it is on sale.  Then I assembled my bags with the following:

2 cubes of yogurt

handful of blackberries

a few strawberries

handful of blueberries

half a banana

1-2 handfuls of spinach leaves

(you can use pretty much any combination of fruit depending on what you find on sale, but this is a usual combination for us)

Then, whenever we want a smoothie I just empty the frozen bag into my Ninja (which I love, by the way), and add milk.  You could add any juice too and that would taste great, but I like to keep mine really healthy for Tavian.  It is great because if he hasn't eaten as well that day I know I can give him a smoothie and he'll still be getting a good variety of food.  You can also add honey before you blend if you want a little extra sweetness, but I find it still tastes great without it.  The above list of ingredients makes about two sippy cups worth of smoothie, so it would probably only really be enough for one adult.  I usually give Tavian a full sippy cup and then I drink whatever is left over.  If I want a few smoothies for me and Cole then I just add a little more of everything to my smoothie bag.

I can't tell you how handy it is to just grab a bag from the freezer anytime we want a yummy treat.  So easy, I love it.  And Tavian does too :)

Sweet Felicity

I have hardly had a chance to really write about my sweet baby girl.

She is over 3 months old now, and the best thing I can say is that she has been such an absolute blessing.

Cole and I can't stop repeating, "She is the happiest baby."  And she truly is.  I mean it wholeheartedly when I say that if she cries it means one of two things...hungry or tired.  And that is all.  Otherwise she never cries.  She is all smiles and giggles and serves as a day brightener to anyone who crosses her path.  People are randomly stopping and letting me know that my sweet baby was smiling at them!

I wouldn't say that Tavian was the most difficult baby ever, but he was definitely more high maintenance.  If he had a dirty diaper, he let us know.  If he was hungry, he let us know and he wanted that food immediately!  Overall just a more intense kid!  And that wasn't bad, but before Felicity I definitely didn't know a baby could be so naturally happy and easy going.  I suppose it could partly be the difference between boys and girls, but it also could just be personality.

Even though Cole and I have been commenting on her happiness since the beginning, we just recently talked about the coincidence (or not so coincidence) that her name actually means happy.  Looks like it was destined from the start!  I know there will be more difficult times ahead, especially as she becomes more aware and more opinionated, but now she is my sweet, happy girl.  It seems like joy and innocence just exudes out of her...and I love it.

Her face cracks me up in this picture..chubs!

I also never really had the chance to express what it has meant to me to have a baby girl.  I would have been happy regardless, but God truly fulfilled the desires of my heart with Felicity.  I seriously look at our future together and I see so much fun and happiness.  I picture all the mother-daughter bonding that I longed for my entire life.  I picture shopping together, and girl get away vacations, and girl talks and heart to hearts.  I know I am painting a picture of rainbows and butterflies, and I know it won't always be like that, but I'm truly excited for all of it.  I look at so many of my friends and the relationships they have with their own mothers, and I am so excited that I will get to be a mother like that to Felicity one day.  How exciting to have grandchildren of my own and help her navigate through motherhood, the way I wish my mother was here to help navigate me!  I look at Felicity and I feel all is good in the world.  She looks so much like I did when I was a baby, as well as my mom's baby pictures.  Finally a baby who looks like me! :)

Sweet baby girl, thank you so much for coming into our lives.  We love you with everything that we have.  You have truly brought an extra peace and happiness to our little family that wasn't here before.  You are our blessing.  We love you baby girl :)

Wow..I am reeeaaally happy in this picture! lol

A Pin Come True: Garlic Cheese Breadsticks

Another Pin, another Recipe!

Cole and I have decided to make one night a week our calzone night (usually friday, saturday or sunday).  We LOVE making the yummiest Calzones.  When I saw this Pin on Pinterest, I knew it would be perfect to make with our calzones.  Who doesn't love cheesy bread sticks? And I think this recipe pretty much nails it!  Because Cole and I have been making our own calzones for awhile, I didn't use the dough recipe that was given, but I followed the rest of the instructions.  In the picture I took below it looks more like a pizza, only because I took the picture before I cut it into the shape of bread sticks!  Once you have the dough this is a super easy and quick recipe to make and I think it is a great appetizer for many different occasions.  YUM!  Don't forget Pizza Sauce for dipping :)  

Below is a picture of our yummy calzones before they have been closed and cooked.  We go all out!  Pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, onion, mushrooms, green pepper, spinach leaves, and our secret ingredient.  I can't even believe I am letting this out of the bag, but trust me, your calzones will never be the same.  Add a few dollops of cream cheese and it takes it to an entirely different level.  Trust me on this one!  I hope someone out there tries it and lets me know what they think!!!  We put them in the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes (until golden brown) and then just heat up some pizza sauce for dipping.  So good!  And such a fun weekly treat!  As Tavian gets older he'll have more and more fun getting to help make his personal calzone.  Cole and I also pull these out a lot when we have company because everyone can make their own entirely to their liking!

Tried any Pins lately??  Do tell!

*I don't have our dough recipe on hand at the moment, but I will try and get it up here later.  We have been making our own wheat dough lately, but in earlier years used the little "add water" packages at the grocery store which were obviously very easy and we still thought tasted great!

A Pin Come True: Yummy BEC

I made this delicious Bacon Egg and Cheese bagel the other morning.  I worked at Gibs Bagels in Fort Collins when I was in college (if you have never been, stop being a fool and go!) and I have always loved a bagel sandwich.  Cole and I have been making bacon, egg, and cheese bagels for a long time, but I had never thought to put avocado on it before...before Pinterest, that is!

I saw this picture and knew it was something I wanted to try!

So last Saturday morning Cole surprised me and made it for me.  We have had it another time since then too!  It is also a great way to use extra avocados before they go bad.  (although I recently saw a pin about freezing them..but more on that another day!)

Here is my conclusion:  It is good!  The only negative was that you couldn't taste the avocado as much as I would have hoped.  But it was still yummy and I liked being able to have another way of getting Tavian to have avocado!  Let me know if any of you try it!

Looks delish..right?

And don't forget to join in on A Pin Come True and let me know all the pins you are trying!

A Pin Come True: I Love You Because

On this Pin Come True I bring to you one of my Valentines Day gifts that I made for Cole this year.  Some of you may have seen on Pinterest the I Love You Because frame.  If you haven't, it is a pretty wonderful idea and I knew it would be perfect to make for Cole.  We can always use more reminders/inspiration to acknowledge the little things we love about one another.  This is what I came up with:

Mine looks a little more hand crafted, probably because it was!  I had to print the words onto an 8.5 by 11 scrapbook page but had to figure out a way to get other paper surrounding it since my frame is an 11 by 14.  It was overall an easy project but a bit time consuming because I had to figure out how I wanted to go about making it work.  I was also in quite the hurry because I had to make it happen during nap time so that my little rascal wouldn't get into everything!  But it turned out pretty well and Cole LOVES it!  We use it all the time and it hangs on the wall directly across from our bedroom so we see it first thing as we leave our room!  This is a cheap project.  I re-purposed this frame that I got at a garage sale and then bought an expo marker to right on the outside of the glass with.  Perfect!  If you use an 8.5 by 11 frame you could just right the words on any regular sized paper and by the marker and you are finished.  It is as easy or as time consuming as you wish to make it!!!

You may also notice in the picture that I have a heart shaped chocolate candy with a tag that says "I Love You More Than Chocolate! (and that is a lot)".  This was also an inspiration from Pinterest. I found 14 Days of Valentines and it helped me give Cole surprises for days!  Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of any of them except the above.  I probably only did 7 out of the 14 but it was still a lot of fun.  I just printed out the tags, cut them out, and attached them onto gifts for him.  I found a lot of fun packaging at the $1 store and that helped everything look extra cute.  If you need a fun idea for next year, this is definitely one you should try!

Let me know if you have any questions, and let me know if you get around to making the "I Love You Because.." frame!

A Pin Come True

Ok folks, so this is my new blog installment.  I have wanted to do this for the past two months but it has been difficult with all the craziness of being the mom of two!  Anyway, I finally think I am ready to get it all going.  It is called A Pin Come True and will consist all the things I find on Pinterest that I will bring to life!  They won't just be pins on the computer anymore, but finally a reality in my life!
I know many of you are really into Pinterest as well so feel free to join me if you like.  It is always neat to know the person who has tried some of these ideas so it is easier to ask questions about the process.

Hope you all have as much with this as I do!!! :)

Our Baby Girl

Oh my goodness, where does the time go?  I'm sad I wasn't able to write this sooner, but hear is the story of Felcity Patricia Eileen!

This pregnancy was easier then Tavian's in many ways, but I was still really uncomfortable towards the end.  Once again I was convinced that I would have the baby early.  I was carrying SO low...it literally felt like the baby was going to fall out of me at any minute.  I think it probably had something to do with carrying Tavian around everywhere.  He had the perfect perch right on top of my belly with all his weight pushing down on the little one!  Well, God loves to teach me patience.  And, although it was uncomfortable, I was actually really grateful that the baby wasn't coming early.  I figure the longer they stay in there the better chance of being healthy!

My Doctor was really lax this time around, and because I wasn't having much of the hydronephrosis pain like I had with Tavian, and because my fibroid didn't seem to be growing anymore, I didn't need as many ultrasounds this time around.  I went in for an apt. the week before my due date and my doctor was finally ready to check me.  To my dissapointment I was only 1cm dilated.  At the time i remember being a bit discouraged, but I also knew I needed to embrace family life with just the three of us because I knew everything was going to change so drastically.  I was still having some really emotionally hard days at the thought of Tavian not being the only one anymore.  I know it sounds crazy because I was so in love and so excited for this baby, but there is still the part of every mother that is anxious about the change and about the ability to love another as ferociously as she does the one currently in her arms.  Looking back I am so thankful that Felicity came in God's time.  I think it was such a gift to me, Cole, and Tavian.  We had such fun family time in that last week and I remember finally coming to a place of peace and being ready for the change.

Felicity was due on December 7th, 2012.  December 6th was a Tuesday and we had our weekly biggest loser night.  It was a fun night and I remember having some sharp pains throughout the show, but nothing serious and nothing that made me think the baby was coming soon.  We went to bed around 10 that night, but at about 11 I started noticing painful contractions.  Nothing too painful, but definatelyl different then the braxton hicks that I know so well.  It is hard when things start in the middle of the night.  Hard because if it is real labor then you should really be trying your best to sleep.  But I was so unsure that I felt I needed to stay up and time the contractions and figure out if it was a false alarm or not.  My dad had agreed to stay the night with Tavian when the baby came, and since there was a chance this could be the real thing, I ended up calling him around 3am to come over and sleep at our house.  I just wanted to be prepared because he lives about 20 minutes away and we are about 20 from the hospital.  I didn't want to find out it was go time and have to wait around for him to get there.  I didn't bug Cole too much throughout the night because I knew one of us should be getting our sleep.  The contractions were probably averaging 7 minutes apart but they weren't very consistent  and by 6am I was pretty sure it was all a false alarm.  I had just gotten out of the shower (which felt so good by the way) and they seemed to slow down.  I heard Tavian getting a little restless in his crib and since I was wanting to cherish every moment with him in these final days, I went and got him and we rocked in the rocking chair together.  We both fell fast asleep and it is a memory I will hold deep in my heart all of my life.  It turned out to be my final moments alone with just my boy.

I awoke in the rocking chair at a little after 7am to a very painful contraction.  It jolted me out of sleep and was so painful that I had to call to Cole (waking Tavian up), because I wasn't sure how I could get out of the chair or lift Tavian off me without any help.  At that moment I realized it wasn't a false alarm and I was very thankful my dad was already at the house!!  Everything started to happen so fast but I don't think I was doing a very good job of communicating the progress with Cole.  He was calmly eating pancakes with Tavian as I sat on the couch realizing the pain was getting more extreme and that each contraction also seemed to be lasting longer.  This was the moment throughout the labor where I was most panicked...I just couldn't get calm knowing we still had to drive to the hospital.  I was on the phone with my sister, Sarah, trying to coordinate when she would pick up Tavian, but after a few minutes on the phone she told me that I was crazy to still be at home and I needed to hang up and be on my way to the hospital.  I'm glad she was persistent!  I was in quite a bit of pain at this point but before leaving the house I had to use the bathroom...I still laugh at my dads reaction.  "Don't use the bathroom!!...I don't want this baby being devlivered at home!"  Haha:)

Cole and I got to the hospital a little after 8am.  When we checked in at the desk I remember a nurse saying something about it looking like I was uncomfortable.  (No, ya think?!?)  Lol, I am pretty sure she didn't expect me to be as far into my labor as I was.  They checked me right away and I was already a 7.  Wow!  She actually looked pretty panicked and said she would be moving everything along as fast as she could.  Even though I suspected it would be a quick process, I still wanted to get in the shower because it had helped so much when I was at home.  Once again it was amazing.  For some reason I hate the bath during labor but love the shower.  The remarkable thing is that during this labor I was very calm the whole time.  I did a lot of breathing and concentrating and swaying back and forth.  But that is about it.  Cole held my hand and supported me the entire time.  He kept reminding me of all the people that were praying for us and it literally brought tears of joy to my face each time!

They checked me an hour later and I was a 9!  My Doctor still wasn't there but they were wanting to know about the epidural.  This was a hard decision for me. I have always loved the idea of having an entirely natural birth and looked up to the women that were able to do so.  However, I was really nervous about the pushing the baby out part without having any medication.  That is just a little scary to me!!  The nurses were adamant if I wanted it I was going to have to decide quickly because my window of opportunity was closing!  I calmly asked if I could call my sister first.  Yes, Andrea is my best friend and she has also had a natural labor so I just wanted a few minutes with her.  After talking with her and also having a few moments with my Dr. I decided that I would get the epidural.  Now we get to the only glitch during the labor.  The anesthesiologist had to stick me like 3 times and it took 25 minutes!  That's right folks, with contractions at a 9 I had to sit hunched over on the side of my bed without moving a muscle and "relaxed" for 25 minutes.  It almost killed me.  Cole said the lady could try one more time but if she didn't get it that we just weren't going to do it.  Somehow she managed to get it right the next time.

Before long it was time to push.  Cole and I were getting so anxious and excited to find out if we were having a boy or a girl!  I still thought it was going to be a girl, but that is also what I was secretly hoping for!  Three contractions later out came the most beautiful little girl.  We had known throughout the entire pregnancy that if we had a girl her name would be Felicity Patricia (my mom's name) Eileen (my Nana's name).    Cole told me it was a girl right away, but I was in disbelief so I asked if he was sure!  haha:)  Felicity was born at 11:04am (a short three hours in the hospital!) and weighed 7lbs 9oz and was 20 1/2 in. long.  I can't tell you the amount of joy that was instantly brought to our lives.  Deep down I was so longing to have a baby girl.  I know I would have been happy either way and most importantly I prayed for a healthy child, but I can't deny that a large part of me longed to have a baby girl.  I desperately wanted to partake in the mother/daughter relationship that I never got to have.  The first thing I said to her when they put her in my arms was that we were going to get to shop together and get our nails done together...Cole thought I was being ridiculous!  I feel so blessed that God has fulfilled this desire of my heart and I look forward to all the girly fun we will have throughout the years!

Cole and I only stayed one night at the hospital because we were really anxious to get home to Tavian.  We got home Thursday evening and it felt wonderful to sleep in our own beds.  Everything with Felicity has been going well...except for breastfeeding (no change there!).  That is a different story for another time, and I may never get around to telling it.  Lets just say that I was able to offer up a lot on behalf of my little girl for the first two 1/2 months of her life.  Considering she will only be three months this week, that should tell you we haven't been out of the woods for very long.  God willing I will be able to continue breastfeeding!!!

Sorry this was so long, but I just wanted to document this special occasion!