I said Goodbye to this handsome boy:

And I went here:

I met this lady:

And then I saw him again: (AWKWARD!)

I had an amazing 4 week experience:

Then got on an airplane:

And flew here:

I can’t believe it has been 5 years since I became a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The 4 weeks I spent at the Missionary Training Center were full of learning, teaching and a lot of laughs. The 18 months that followed in Washington D.C. was life changing and unforgettable. Cheers to serving God and helping teach His word to the world!

Hallie turned 2 on Friday the 13th!!! She had a fabulous birthday and was spoiled way beyond what a two year should be. Seriously she shouldn’t plan on ever seeing a birthday quite like this one again. That sounds sad but boy was she spoiled!

THE PRESENTS:

The festivities started a few days early while Grandma Crane was here. Grandma got some help from uncle Tyler picking out Hallie’s present. It was a Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal. Plus even better Hallie got lots of great books! Thanks Grandma Crane!!! (We love the books and read them all the time.)

For months Hallie has been asking for a bike. We told her that she would get one for her birthday and she never forgot. We got her a Strider bike that doesn’t have peddles. It is awesome!!! (If you have never seen one go watch some videos on YouTube) We had asked her previously what color she wanted and she picked yellow. That morning I was the one who couldn’t wait to see her open it. She knew it was her bike as soon as she saw the box, the little smarty pants. As you can see from the pictures she enjoyed riding it around the house and later outside.

Nanna and Papa (my parents) were here for Hallie’s actual birthday.  For months my mom has wanted to get Hallie a kitchen but we kept telling her we didn’t have room in our house. However for Hallie’s birthday my mom said she wasn’t asking permission this time. lol

Hallie loves her little kitchen and spends hours playing with it. Thanks mom and dad it was the perfect gift you were right! 🙂 (P.s. Love the morning hair Hallie is sporting in this photo. I call her my little rooster.)

THE CAKE:

Hallie was obsessed with buses a couple months ago. Our car rides would be spent looking for buses and then as soon as she would see one the search would be on for another. Her obsession has since mellowed out but I had already been planning the cake and told her about it. Ohhh the look on her face when she saw the cake was worth all the time I put into that silly thing. Actually it was worth WAY more. She loved it! (p.s. the cake was huge! I used three cake mixes and ended up throwing half of the cake away after the party-I would have eaten it all otherwise!)

THE PARTY:

Since my parents were in town and Kyle was still a newborn I didn’t want to have a big party. I invited me and Hallie’s three closest friends and boy did we have fun. It was simple: Eat cake and ice cream, open presents and play with balloons. Gotta love being a kid. Thanks, Stella, Lindsey, Nicolette and families for coming. We sure love you guys!

I can’t believe my little lover is 2 years old. She is seriously my best friend and I can’t get over how much I love her. My love grows every day as I watch her grow up. She really is the perfect little girl: smart (she can count to 11 on her own without help), athletic, energetic, polite, super cute, very talkative, friendly and caring. She hates when people get hurt she gets so concerned about them. And plus finally she is a great sleeper!

If I love her this much now I can’t imagine how much I will love her when she’s a teenager. (I’m sure I’m going to need it! lol)

My life is full of a lot of things right now…CUTE is defiantly one of them!

We finally made it to the natural History Museum. It is huge!!! We only saw about a quarter of it.

Hallie sporting new sunglasses and a mouth full of food. (In the new double stroller woot woot!)

She loved the big bear

Sorry so blurry but I had post this because it’s our first family photo.

The fish exhibit

She looks so much like her dad in this picture!

Early labor was so different this time around. I had like 5 or more false alarms where I thought “oh this might be it”.  Ben even stayed home from work one time.  I only called the midwife on one of those occasions. (So I don’t feel too bad.) She was amazingly nice and we kept in touch for a few hours until I reported that nothing was changing. Every time I would have contractions that would stick around but they would never get more intense. I would often go to sleep and then wake up the next morning with nothing happening. I thought  for sure I would go early with this baby because of how different my circumstances were from when I was pregnant with Hallie. With Hallie we had just barely moved to VA and I didn’t know anyone (plus it was HOT) so I sat in my apartment and watched T.V. all day. This time around I was super busy chasing Hallie and keeping us busy. I went to the gym and the mall to “walk” him out several times and I figured that with everything I was doing it had to help speed things along. I was wrong. I now believe that the baby comes when they decide. Kyle decided to come right on his due date.

I woke up in the middle of the night with some contractions. I remember having the thought again, “this might be it”.  The contractions kept coming but I was able to fall back asleep.  When I woke up the contractions were coming every 10-15 minutes regularly. I called my midwife and we decided to keep in touch through out the day. It was a Friday so Ben was home. We packed the car, went to the grocery store and the UPS store, ate at Subway and then came home and put Hallie down for her nap.  By this time my contractions were coming every 5-7 minutes and were getting more intense but did not hurt at all. We decided that because my last labor was only 5 hours and it was Friday we didn’t want to risk the chance of getting stuck in traffic and having the baby in the car. So after Hal’s nap we dropped her off for a possible sleep over at our friends house. (Ben had told her earlier that she would get to go play at Paige’s house and she talked about it the rest of the day. She didn’t want to do anything else but “go pay paige house”.)

We got to the birth center at 3:30 p.m. and got settled in. My contractions were still coming but nothing hurt. I was dilated to a 5 and was relaxed, calm, and excited all at the same time. We took a walk, ate some food, read from a book that we’ve been working on together and chatted with the midwife.  Things started to pick up and people started arriving. My birth assistant and hypnobirthing instructor both came. Plus, a new birth assistant who needed to attend more births came. (They asked me if I cared if they called her and invited her. I told them I didn’t mind and we would have a party. lol)  After my hypnobirthing instructor Sarah got there we decided to take another walk. It was while on this walk that I really had to start concentrating on relaxing during my contractions.  They started coming every 1-2 minutes so we walked back to the birth center. (During this whole time we are just chatting and telling jokes.) Ben was so encouraging. He would tell me over and over again how good I was doing and how proud he was of me. (The perfect coach.) When we got back I listened to my ipod with my hypnobirthing scripts and tried to relax. I asked to get in the jacuzzi but the midwife said that it would slow things down and I wasn’t far enough along. Hello!!! I was having contractions every 1-2 minutes and was defiantly far enough along. We blame hypnobirthing for fooling them. 🙂

During the whole thing the midwife and 2 birth assistants stayed in the other room and came in intermittently to check the baby’s heart rate and then leave again. (This is what I requested in my birth plan.)  Sarah, Ben and I read scripts and talked during the next hour or so. Things really started picking up and I started to get very uncomfortable. I was in a lot of pain and my contractions were coming right on top of each other. I kept breathing and Ben tells me now that I was still really relaxed. (Although in my head I was thinking this sucks!)  I felt like I needed to push but my water hadn’t broken yet. They encouraged me to push anyway and boom my water broke! (with gusto I might add) haha. Two minutes later I said I wanted to stand up and out came Kyle’s head on that very push. (Gotta love gravity) My midwife told me to stop pushing for a second and then she coached me when to push and when to take a break. I was very grateful she did that because I ended up not tearing at all!!  Kyle came out with his hands behind his head like he was sun bathing at the beach. My midwife said she had never seen anything like it before. Lucky me… I got to deliver his head and arms at the same time! They laid Kyle on my chest and then after checking his color they left us alone for half an hour for “family bonding time” they call it. After that time was up they came in did his weight etc. and I showered. We rested and signed papers then went home 3 hours later.

I’m so grateful I did hypnobirthing. I now believe it is the best way to have a baby naturally. If you ask Ben how this birth was compared to Hallie’s he will tell you night and day. With Hallie I was freaking out for 5 hours this time he said I only freaked out for the 12 minutes I was pushing. This labor was also 5 hours long which isn’t bad compared to a lot of women’s. I’m so grateful I have healthy pregnancies and deliveries. What an honor it is to be part of God’s plan in bringing His children into the world. I can’t believe I have two now!  I can’t imagine my life with out either one of them.

So who wants to borrow my hypnobirthing book?!

Me at the birth center.

Ben and Kyle at the birth center.

Brand new Kyle!!

Very tired parents!

July 9th, 2010 @10:32 pm

7 lbs. 14 oz.

20 inches long

Little Kyle at 2 1/2 days old. My good friend Lindsey took these pictures and then designed the birth announcement. She’s good!

Hallie loves her new baby brother. She always wants to help take care of him, “hode him”, “watch him”, “see him” and “kiss mouth” (which is hilarious because he kisses back).  She has been throwing quite a few fits in hopes to get more attention on her rather than the baby, but we expected this!

My two little lovers. Hallie is so funny with her serious face. 🙂

Big sister holding baby brother.

Big sister “lay down wid baby Kyle” (She wanted to share her favorite blanket with him.)

Usually we head up to all the monuments in DC for the big 4th of July celebration. We have absolutely loved it the last two years. However, this year with as many contractions as I have constantly and the unbearable heat we decided to stay home and take it easy. Sorry Hallie no fireworks for you this year. (I know I sound like a mean mom but when your child does NOT sleep in despite how late she goes to bed AND is grumpy the next day AND you are 9 months pregnant it just makes sense to miss the beautiful explosions and skip your one of your top holidays.)

Here is Hallie in her cute 4th of July dress.

I gotta tell you how much I LOVE the pool. It is seriously the perfect place to be during summer. Hallie loves it as well and asks for it constantly. We are so grateful for good friends who take us to their pools. 🙂 Thanks again Lindsey we had a blast!

Isn’t she just the cutest?! When I ask her to say cheese she does the sign for the food cheese. lol

Taking a break from swimming to eat snacks. Good thing my awesome friend Lindsey brought enough snacks for Hallie to mooch off of.

The local AMC movie theater has an awesome summer promotion where they show already released kid movies for $1. Hallie has never been to a theater and so I decided before this baby comes I would take her. We got to go with one of Hallie’s little friends Olivia and her mom Stella. The two girls are only weeks apart so it makes things fun.

The little Bean CharCho ate the ENTIRE time!! I guess whatever worked to keep her entertained. (She never even makes it through a movie at home.) I’m glad we got to do this little adventure before her brother came.

P.S. We saw Monsters Vs. Aliens

Holy cow can I not be pregnant anymore!! Even my maternity clothes don’t fit around my extremely large belly!  Every where I go people stare at me like “wow she’s going to pop!” I even had some rapper thug guy at the mall ask me if I wanted to buy one of his super cool spray painted shirts for my baby. He said that I was going to “pop soon, right?” I smiled, laughed and said “yes soon”. haha it gave me a good laugh.

Overall I still feel really good, just huge! I got up 5 times last night to pee-yep that’s annoying! I have about a million contractions a day but they are pain free and don’t ever get more intense. Two things that I have noticed about this pregnancy that are different from Hallie’s are: 1-Ache. I don’t have any!!!! YAY. With Hallie it was bad. 2-weight gain. 40 pds with Hallie. 25 pds so far with this baby.  One thing that is the same is the fact that my hair has once again turned red! Once I have the baby it goes away.  Weird I know!