June 10, 2012

Our 12-Year Anniversary! Crazy what can happen in a few short years...

I love this man so much.  He is a wonderful husband and daddy for our 3 kids.  They are so blessed too.  He has held down the fort for the past month.  He was spread pretty thin the first few weeks especially.  He took care of me and Lydia.  He took care of the house and making sure we all got food.  He took time to fill our sons' love tanks when they needed it.  He took first night shift to hold Baby when she didn't want to be alone.  He listened to an emotional wife and let me sleep when I needed to.  And he did all of that very graciously.

Cutie Patootie

Here's Lydia!   What a sweetie!

When nothing else works, this position in Daddy's arms is usually the best place for her.

School's Out!

These 2 are tuckered out after another school year.

We got them Celebration Slushies and took them to the Government Dock to celebrate after school.

We read their report cards as we sat there.  Their teachers had positive things to say about our sons.  So proud of these guys! 

Attention Grandpa: The Challenge is On!

Evan's hair has been quite long.  One day, I thought I would get to cut it.  Evan got a comb hopelessly tangled in his hair.  Fortunately/unfortunately, we were able to clip just a small amount of hair to get the comb out and it wasn't noticeable.  Here I thought I was finally taking the 'Before picture' and would get to cut it:

He agreed that after school was out, he would get a hair cut. Of course, since he was giving up his beloved long hair, he decided he wanted it shaved. Bald. I said No. I couldn't help it.  Grandma and Grandpa Miller heard about his wishes.  They called Evan as Grandpa was sitting down for a haircut in Indiana.  They said Grandpa would get whatever haircut Evan got.  They thought they were joking.  Well Grandpa, You have 4 options.  We decided that you can choose any 1 of the following:

#1 The Mullet Side-Sweep

#2  The Relaxed Mohawk 
(No, those are not tiny lobster.  Yes, they are crawdads that the boys caught and boiled.  Yes, we did eat them- dipped in melted butter, of course.  Yes, our eating habits tonight totally fit Evan's haircut in this photo.)

#3  The Blond 'Hawk  (The pose is vital to the whole look.)

#4  The Grassy Mohawk

Here is the front view of this work of art.  One side is blue and one side is green.  What an adorable child.

Okay, Dad, the choice is yours!  We'll wait for your pictures!

Lydia Meets Her Big Brothers

Kendall and I could hardly wait for this Team of Three to finally meet.  And the Big Brothers were so excited to finally meet their Little Sister.

Here Eli and Evan are seeing Lydia for the first time.

So after examining their Little Sister closely, Evan finally asked, "So, how do you know she's a girl?"

Alright, let the lessons begin:

After bathtime, Lydia was ready to eat.  So we got all the personal issues out of the way the first night and the boys got a little glimpse of how Lydia eats.  Kendall and I had decided that it would be much better to just normalize nursing rather than having the boys trying to sneak glances for the next months or me always trying to hide.  So I guess they got quite the education that night!

At the Hospital

He's such a good Daddy.

Don't I look all put together for just having given birth?  Ha ha!  I won't even show the photos from the day of her birth.  I look crazy-scary!

Isn't she so tiny?

She weighed 5 lbs 5 oz when we left the hospital.

Such a mix of emotions about the emergency c-section...
Of course the fear and the stress of the whole ordeal left a mark.  And there was disappointment.  I was psyched to labor and push this baby out.  (And what better baby to push out than this tiny one?)  I was disappointed because for months I had been preparing myself for labor.  I wanted to labor at home as long as possible.  Then, because it was Baby #3 and because she was so small, I wouldn't even be at the hospital very long before pushing her out.  I also had plans for how I would do some things differently from the first two, hopefully improving the experience.  And I was so looking forward to the hour or 2 after her birth.  I would have an adrenaline high and I was so excited about the alert time so many babies have right after they're born.  Well, none of those things happened.  In fact, everything seemed rather surreal after we were back home with Lydia.  I had been psyching myself up for a huge event that never happened.  But here I was with the final product: a beautiful little girl.

The other disappointments were knowing that I had a long healing time ahead of me and knowing that this c-section may change the course of any future delivery.

But my overwhelming emotions were those of gratitude and relief.  We were so grateful that the doctor here in Red Lake had the foresight to send us out before things got to a true state of emergency.  (Looking back, I think things were probably more urgent than we realized when they evacuated us, but we didn't need to know everything at the time.)  We were so glad to be in Winnipeg with nurses and doctors who do labor and delivery all day, every day.  It was good to know that we were just down the hall from an operating room if needed and that this was all a fairly normal course of events for the staff.

We were so grateful and relieved to have Lydia arrive safe and sound.  In the end, we were just glad to have her with us, however she arrived.