A Sneek Peek...

Well, we ARE actually going to get our pictures sent out this Christmas (last year they were all addressed and in the envelopes but we forgot to send them). So, I'm not going to post our new family picture but here are a few of the others. We had Thomas' 3 year pictures (a few months past due) and Olivia's newborn pictures done all at the same time.

Poor Thomas had chapped little lips so he couldn't smile as big as usual...but still very sweet I think!

Our little Olivia at 2 weeks old.

This was Elise's favorite, she says it looks like Olivia is singing Opera.

Her hair will not stay down unless it is wet...poor girl has spiked hair all the time.

We were hoping to get some sleepy shots but she was WIDE awake the whole time!

I LOVE tiny feet!

A Little Blast From The Past

About year ago last February we were home for Zac and Sarah's wedding and we were able to have my sister Jan squeeze in a little photo shoot for us. I can't believe how little everyone was! These were Elise's 5 year pictures, Zachary's 3 year pictures and Thomas' 18 month pictures. As is usually the case when we try to do family pictures, we bring quite the gong show! The kids had a lot of fun and Jan was WONDERFUL and just let them do their thing while she snapped picture after picture. The family shots weren't planned and turned into a big wrestling match! So much fun! A HUGE THANK YOU to Jan for giving us this little blast from the past...and a good laugh!
Our Little Zachary.

Sweet Thomas, before glasses

Brothers.

Lovely Elise.

And here is where our little wrestling match began...this gave me a good laugh (check out Zac)

A little taste of "REAL" life with the Rhodenizer bunch.

Elise and her cousin Kara.

Our little Ballerina!

Thank You again Jan! We had a BLAST!

A Little Encouragement

It's funny thinking back to when we decided to become parents. The whole plan just seemed grand! We were so excited to see and hold that sweet little baby and we were sure that OUR kids wouldn't be the "problem child", we would love them, they would love us and we would do everything perfect, our life would be wonderful and to top it all off I would be the BEST little homemaker with everything in its place and dinner on the table. What they don't tell you (or what they told us but we didn't hear) was that, while this is the most rewarding job you could ever have...it is also the most difficult and exhausting job you could ever have!
Well, our life IS wonderful, we DO love our children, I'm pretty sure they love us back. I will admit that we are NOT perfect parents and my children DO have melt downs from time to time ;) and everything is in A place in my home...not necessarily in the right one though but we DO eat dinner every night.
As exhausting as this job is, I wouldn't change it! Life gives you little moments that recharge you for what ever may come next. Sometimes it's the 300 hugs and kisses when they should already be in bed, or just peeking in on them while they sleep, or when Elise was SO excited for my birthday that she made me a card EVERY DAY for about a week and a half leading up to the big day. Sometimes it's when Thomas tells me that my left handed "stick person" sketch of our family is "AMAZING!", when he brings me breakfast in bed (with plastic food) or when he chooses to have a nap just to come and cuddle with me. Today was another one of those days. Zachary was asked in his class today at church "What is Love?" and his response was "Love is my Mom". I guess I must have done something right. what a sweet sweet boy! I am now recharged and ready for whatever tomorrow brings! I am SO thankful for these little gifts!!

Introducing...

Olivia Anne! Born at 7:03am on October 31st. Weighing in at 7lbs 11oz. and 20 3/4 inches long.

This is a little over due and these pictures are only from the first 5 days (she will be 2 weeks tomorrow), but it's better late than never!

Well, here's a little summary of what happened (minus most of the gory details)...so if you don't want to know than just scroll down to the pictures but for my journal purposes I wanted it written down somewhere. This pregnancy had been definitely the most difficult of the 4, closer to the end I was having a few problems with swelling and high blood pressure. They were sending me for extra check ups and non-stress tests to make sure everything was still alright. On the 30th I went in for another little check up. My blood pressure was high again (about 160/100), my feet were extremely swollen (what pregnant woman can't say that right??) and I was feeling a little out of breath. The Doctor sent me straight to the hospital to be put on the monitors and possibly be induced!! (WHAT?!? not quite what I was expecting) So, I checked out and called Josh to tell him what we were doing. Zachary was at preschool and Elise was at a play date. I made a few phone calls and arranged for the kids to have extended play dates (with the option of a sleepover), packed my bag VERY quickly and rushed to get Zac from school and drop He and Thomas off. Once we got to the hospital and were hooked up, my blood pressure was the lowest it had been in a month!! I was starving (it was about 4:30pm) so Josh grabbed me a sandwich from the cafeteria but before I could finish the first half the Dr came in and gave us our options. She said we could induce tonight, come back in the morning or on Sunday if we wanted. We weren't sure what to do at first, but since we had already arranged for the kids and shipped them to their friends houses (and due to a mix up Josh didn't have the next week off like we had planned) we might as well try and get this party started and try to get it done before midnight (we didn't want a Halloween baby if we had a choice...). Since my last 2 labors had gone pretty fast we thought we could do it (because it's up to me right?!).



So, they hooked me up to an IV and started the pitocin at about 6:00pm. I hadn't had this before, in the past once they broke my water the labor started and progressed pretty quickly. I had a FANTASTIC nurse that kept asking the Dr to come and do just that but they wouldn't...until 5am on Saturday!! I was finally at 5cm at 5am so they agreed it was "safe" . Well, like in the past once they did that I progressed quickly. I was at an 8 in about 15 minutes. I had decided I wanted to try and go natural with this baby and up to this point had been fine. With how fast I seemed to be progressing we didn't think that there was any time to "re-think" that decision. After about an hour and a half I had made it to about a 9-91/2 and seemed to be stuck. With how the baby was positioned I couldn't progress any more. At this point I had been awake for about 24 hours, I hadn't eaten in about 15 hours and had been having contractions (about every 3-7 minutes) for almost 13 hours. I was unraveling pretty fast so the Dr decided to take things into her own hands (literally!). We didn't realize Olivia was coming face first! The Nurses described it as "she came out with her face pressed against the window"...which is why her face is so bruised! It was quite the ordeal but one little look at her and it was all worth it. She is such a sweet baby! We love having her in our home. She loves to be held (and we love to hold her!). I LOVE LOVE LOVE that sweet, newborn smell!

You can see her little bruised face here.

This is the first time the kids came to see Olivia...you would have thought it was Christmas!

A VERY proud Daddy!!

One of the delivery nurses brought us a hat for our little Halloween baby.

All ready to go...

Just relaxing at home.