Clone Babies

My first picture with Kaylee

 As Andrew and I were going through our pictures of Kaylee we noticed some similarities with old pictures of Ebby.

 Then we noticed even more similarities and came to the conclusion that all our babies are clones of each other for the first couple months of life. Here's proof.

Autumn

Kaylee

 

Kaylee

Ebby

The Story

On the 23rd of October I learned from my doctor that I was 2.5 to 3 centimeters dilated. This scared Andrew and I since I had been early with my other two kids, those deliveries went really fast and Andrew was still in Arizona on an away rotation. Luckily the doctors at Arizona State were super understanding and told Andrew he could come home early, just in case. The next day Andrew came home to me, the kids, and Sarah and her kids who were visiting. Of course I didn't progress at all that week. Because that's how labor is: if you make plans they always fall through and if you don't you go into labor. I think Sarah was secretly wishing I would go into labor so she could meet little Kaylee and to tell you the truth, there was a little part of me that wished for it too.
So the day before Halloween Andrew was suppose to go to an interview in El Paso. And again, luckily, the doctors in El Paso were very generous and changed Andrew's interview date to mid November. Again I was secretly hoping to go into labor, and again, nothing progressed with Kaylee.
But (I told myself) that it was good nothing had happened yet because my mom hadn't arrived yet and I really wanted her in the hospital delivery room with us. The day she did come the doctor stripped my membranes and was confident that I'd go into labor that night. We agreed that if nothing happened I'd go in the next day and be stripped again. She also said that if I started having contractions I should come in since I was currently 4 centimeters dilated. I thought the timing would be perfect and was really hoping to see Kaylee soon. Of course ... nothing happened.
The next morning we went back in. We mentioned that I had been having little contractions that didn't really hurt at all since dinner time the night before and they said that since I was now 5 centimeters we could be admitted into the hospital.  YEAH! FINALLY! That was at about 11:30 am.
I got an epidural (again, YEAH!). My mom came. Everything was awesome. Until my sweet brother, who came down from Dallas to babysit Ebby and Autumn called and told us he was completely locked out of our house. Andrew had to call a locksmith and go home to give his consent to unlock our house. That was at about 2 o'cock.
In the hour and fifteen minutes Andrew was gone I had gone from a 5 1/2 to 10 and being prepped to push. Unfortunately that was also the time that I started to feel things again. The anesthesiologist gave me another bolus of pain medicine through my epidural. Which didn't really alleviate anything but made my right leg go totally numb for the next eight hours. I'm SO glad my mom was there with me. They were literally putting my legs in the stirrups when Andrew walked into the room. It only took one contraction and Kaylee was out. That was an extreme blessing in my book. She was born at 3:28 pm, was 7 lbs 2 oz and 19 3/4 inches long.
The rest of the story consists of tender embraces, sweet kisses and grateful prayers. It was beautiful and perfectly timed. Yet again the Lord totally knew what he was doing and blessed me with his timing rather than mine.

Kaylee Sarah Beesley

I'm way too tired to try and be clever or even give you all the gist of how our beautiful Kaylee came into this world so I'm going to do it another day. I will say that the labor and delivery was by far the best one I've had and that we are all happy and healthy but tired. Today I'm posting the few pictures we have.

Favorite kid quote this week

While I'm putting lotion on my leg:

Ellie: "Ha, ha, your leg shakes!"

Me: "Oh, thanks for noticing, Ellie."

Ellie: "Not your head or your belly. Just your leg."

Me: Well at least you didn't list other body parts.

For Daddy!

So, my twin sister Sarah and her two kids have come for a visit! They'll be here until Andrew gets back from his last away rotation in Arizona. They've only been here a day and I already feel SO much happier and so much less stressed. I love it and I know my kids love it. I hope they do too.

This goes out to Ebby and Ellie's wonderful Dads. We all love and miss you!

 The Blooper Reel:

 

Talking Autumn

I still have no idea what she's saying but she certainly does.

 

P.S. Her eyes totally remind me of the blue eyed people in the movie, Dune.

Autumn Feeding Ebby

I'm posting this video with the hope that none of you will judge me harshly for allowing my kids to eat off the floor. But seriously, it's getting really hard for me to crawl around on the floor four or five times during a meal picking up after my kids. At least this way my back and knees don't hurt as much and my kids actually eat something.

What-the-what?

I believe my bedroom has been cursed or jinxed or something because I've found two of these little guys in the past two weeks. Not in the kitchen by the back door, or the family room by the front door, but in my bedroom. Also (and I'm quite happy about this) I've never found a spider or any other creepy-crawlies. 

Come on guys, it's not Halloween yet. I'm sorry if I upset you but can you please lift this curse? It's starting to really creep me out.

Thank Goodness for Toddlers

So, yesterday was probably one of the worst days of my life. Which is really sad considering it was Andrew and my 6th Wedding Anniversary.

Background:
Andrew just finished a two week anesthesia away rotation in Salt Lake City, Utah. The kids and I were able to tag along and it was wonderful. We were able to stay with my parents and see a lot of awesome people. (Except the Palmer Grandparents, sorry.) I was tired but LOVED every day.
We left last Saturday and spent all day in airplanes and in our car. Finally we arrived home just to turn around the next day (our anniversary) and take Andrew back to the airport so he could start a four week anesthesia rotation in El Paso.

Story:
I want to prefece this story with a reminder to all that I'm pregnant. I'm finally in my third trimester and my hormones are going CRAZY!!!
I didn't really start to cry until we turned into the airport. By the time we said our good-byes I was pretty inconsolable. Poor Andrew. I'm sure he got a lot of weird looks from people. When Ebby realized he was not going on the plane with Andrew he had a melt down, screaming and thrashing around in his car seat. As I started to drive away Ebby realized that I was making more of a fuss then him and stopped.
Completely calm he said, "Mommy, what's wrong?"
"I really miss Daddy."
"Oh, it's ok Mommy. Daddy's coming back."
"Thanks Ebby."

Later that same day (during another crying episode) Autumn dropped her toys, ran over and gave me a hug.

I don't know how I would have managed yesterday without my loving kids.

What are you doing?

Background.  Ebby and Autumn were splashing around in the tub. From two rooms away he saw me in the front room putting on a movie for him.

Ebby: Mommy! What are you doing?

Me: I'm putting on the movie, Green Eggs and Ham.

Ebby: What?!?

Me: I'm putting on Green Eggs and Ham.

Ebby: WHY!?!

Me: Because you like it.

Ebby: OH! Thank you, Mommy.

Cute Response

After seeing a picture of Darth Vader for the first time Ebby responds with, "How cute."

To be fair, Vader was playing an accordion.

Here's a link to the video Ebby was watching at the time.

The girls are finally going to outnumber the boys!

We had an ultrasound today. Besides finding out that we're having a girl we saw a little taste of her personality. Our little beauty must somehow be related to Jackie Chan. After almost every pause to take her measurements the sonographer had to try to find her again. She flipped and spun so many times it was tiring to just watch her. Near the end I swear she did a spinning jump kick right onto the probe. That one actually hurt.
We're so excited to have another baby girl but we're kind of at a loss when it comes to names. Any (serious) suggestions?

Ebby's 3rd Birthday

It's so hard to believe that our little man is already three years old. Time really does fly when you're having fun. And you, my dear Ebby, are SO much fun. Thanks for being such a wonderful little man.

We love you!

Happy Birthday!

123's, video games and vegetables

Autumn's kind of learning her 123's.

Recently Ebby's had a really bad diaper rash. He's been really good about it so we thought we'd give him a fun distraction. I think we may have opened up an extremely large can of worms a little early here.

 

Finally, someone's decided to eat their vegetables of their own accord. Ebby still won't touch them but at least Autumn's trying.

Ebby "Reading" his First Book

Trials and Blessings

Life has been really hard lately. "Morning" sickness, food aversions, extreme fatigue and (sorry Andrew) weird mood swings, all while trying to keep two toddlers clean, fed and happy. With everything I have to complain about I feel like I have even more to be thankful for. I have a WONDERFUL husband who sacrifices so much time and energy to help me get through each day. I have two beautiful kids that are healthy and love us. And I have awesome family members who are constantly uplifting me and will occasionally come visit. Andrew's mom, Sharon, was just here for a couple days and my brother, Tim, is coming this weekend. I'm also extremely grateful to the Lord for blessing us with another baby and that we had the chance to catch a glimpse of #3 yesterday.

With so many trials in my life I'm so glad that I have so many blessings.

Due: November 11, 2012

Autumn's walking! ... again.

The last two weeks have been really weird for me. It's like we traveled back in time about five months. Before Autumn got her cast she wouldn't stand or walk (thankfully). Then when she finally did get her cast she would only tolerate crawling, maybe standing but only for a minute or two. As she's gotten more use to having a cast it's like she's re-learned how to stand, walk and now run. Yes, Autumn is trying to run with a cast on her leg. Here are some videos to prove it.

Wild Flowers of Texas

Fall is normally my favorite time of the year, but the Texas springs are definitely growing on me.

This is what we saw coming home from church last Sunday. The Blue Bonnets (Texas' state wild flower) are coming up everywhere. Aren't they so beautiful?

Slip-sliding awa - OH GOSH OW!

So, on Saint Patrick's Day we were invited to a bar-b-que at a local park. This particular park had a couple of cool slides. One of them was a side-by-side slide that also sported a fun s-curve to it. Being the cool mom that I am I decided to take the kids down the slide with me. Ebby was on the slide next to me and I put Autumn on my lap. Right before the curve Autumn's foot slid down between my thigh and the side of the slide. I noticed that her foot got pinched but didn't think it was that bad. Autumn cried but not for very long so I figured everything was ok.

The next day (Sunday) she wanted to be held a lot and had a stuffy nose. Thinking she was sick, Andrew stayed home from church with her.

When I got home Andrew told me he'd noticed that she refused to stand and would NOT walk. She'd crawl but only a little. We finally put two and two together and took her to the urgent care clinic. They did an x-ray and couldn't find anything wrong. They put an ace bandage on and told us it was probably just a sprained tendon.

The next morning we got a call from the doctor we saw the night before. He told us he had sent the images to a radiologist and he found a small fracture in her mid tibia and that we should come in right away to make sure there was no swelling or anything.

We saw a podiatrist who said everything still looked ok but that she needed a cast. He told us to schedule an appointment with the fracture clinic, put the ace bandage back on, and told us not to let her walk or stand and sent us on our way.

What he failed to mention was that the fracture clinic is only open one day a week. Thursdays. So, for almost a week now Andrew and I have been hovering over her trying to make sure she (and Ebby) didn't do any more damage. It's been very stressful and very tiring. 

We were very excited this morning to finally get her cast. We went to the clinic at 9:45. Three and a half hours and two casts  later (Autumn screamed and kicked so much the first attempt was rubbish) we finally made it home. For the first time in four days Andrew and I feel like we can stop holding our breath and Autumn's just thrilled she can do stuff again.

What a week. I bet both my kids will think twice about going down a slide with their "cool" mom.

It was time for a change

About a week ago I woke up hating my hair. I really wanted a change from the long and straight and since my hair refuses to curl in any way that would be remotely pretty I decided to go short again. What do you think?

Random, Autumn, Random

This is what Andrew managed to video at dinner. I guess Autumn just got bored after she was done with her food.

Busy, Busy Saturday!

So, Andrew and I are SO glad this weekend is pretty much over. Andrew's been teaching Gospel Doctrine every other Sunday at church. Today was his week to teach and the Bishopric asked him to speak in sacrament. Also, his class begged him into making cookies for them. (I was so happy to hear that!) So, with schedules and kids and life it came down to doing all of this preparing yesterday. He started studying at ten in the morning, he finished just before ten last night. In case you were wondering, this is what he looked like all day.

His talk was great ("Being in the World but not of the World"), he lesson was amazing (as always) and we're so excited to be relaxing.

Necklaces and Scary Movies

Scary Movies:

If you don't know, The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my all time favorite movies. I don't know if any of you will believe me but I have only watched it once in front of Ebby (he was less than a year old) and never in front of Autumn. And that one time I realized that it would probably be too scary for them. You know with the bogeyman and that clown with the tear-away face and all. 

So you can imagine my surprise when Ebby pointed to the DVD and said, "Please, Mommy, Please!" When I told him it was too scary he started having a BIG meltdown. So, I put on the movie totally thinking he'd get scared in the first few minutes of the film and then we'd switch it to something more suitable for toddlers. Well, not only did Ebby love it but Autumn did too. So much that he's asked for it four times in the past week! 

These are definitely my children.

Necklaces:
Autumn has decided she likes the softer side of woman hood. This is a video of her first "necklace" experience.

 

P.S. I've never put a necklace on her and Andrew took the video, so this is all Autumn.

Holiday videos at last!

It's really late but here is proof we had a great holiday vacation.

Random Awesome-ness

As I was compiling our vacation stuff to make a video I came across these precious gems and couldn't wait to post them.

Some highlights from the past month.

Crazy Month

Wow, I already feel like I've had my share of sicknesses and troubles for the year and we're only through the first month!

First we got back from vacation. Don't get me wrong vacation was FABULOUS but getting back up to speed after being gone for an entire month can be ridiculously frustrating. Then, just when things were starting to settle down, all of us got sick. Then since we were starting to feel better Autumn received her 1 year vaccines. Four shots, she was not happy. Then both Ebby and Autumn got sick again. That time it actually turned out to be bronchitis and concurrent ear infections. (For both kids.) Right after they were diagnosed Andrew and I got upper respiratory infections. We all only started feeling better two days ago. Now Autumn's decided to have a reaction to the MMR vaccine. Thank goodness it's only a mild reaction. She's uncomfortable and has small pick dots all over her little body, but it should be better in three days. Oh, and through all of this Andrew has been studying his heart out for STEP 2. He took it last week.

It's not all been sicknesses and stresses. We've been able to see my brother Tim twice and my Dad came into town last weekend. Seriously they have made this past month worth it.

It's been so long since I've posted anything that I feel like I need to post some pictures to prove that we're still alive. So here are a few cute ones.

P.S. Just so you know, I'm still planning on posting about our fabulous vacation. And if we're healthy for more than two days it might actually happen.

Really Autumn?

I have so much stuff I want to post about our holidays that it's incredibly daunting. So, I'm not going to. Yet.

Instead, I'm going to give you a quick glimps at Autumn's adorable, quirky self.

She's decided that this is the only right way to sit at the table.