Holiday Rundown!

So now that the holidays have come and gone here is evidence of what we have been up to:

We picked the coldest night to go down town and see the Christmas lights! But we enjoyed it!





We spent Christmas Eve at our house with Todd's family and we opened presents from them. Both Todd and Isabelle got new camera's.



We all got new PJ's from my mom on Christmas eve. My parents came to our house early Christmas morning. It was so fun to see the excitement that Isabelle had. She got a new baby, an easle, and her most wanted Nativity set. Todd got some new tools that he can use on our new house!







New Years was great! We spent the night at the hotel with the Wahlen family. We played games, ate good food and stayed up all night!









What a blessing it is to have the chance to be surrounded by family and share great times and to celebrate our Saviors birth. We had a great holiday and hope all of you did as well!

RANDOM CRAZY LIFE!

Along with everyone else we have been a little busy and haven't had much time to blog. So this is going to be my attempt to catch up on what we have been doing, I might be a little random.

First off, Hayden is doing great! She really is a good baby and we are so happy that she is part of our family. She is eating good and finally sleeping good (for now) and that is about all she does:) She is almost smiling and is really starting to be more aware of what is going on around her. She constantly grunts and groans and makes sure that we don't forget that she is around. She is so dang cute that we can't go anywhere that we don't get stopped by strangers that want to look at her and comment on all of her hair! Isabelle absolutely loves her and runs to her every time she makes a peep. Isabelle loves to help and is such a little mother. I can't wait until they can be good friends and play together. They definitely look like sisters....here is a picture of Isabelle at one month and then one of Hayden ...do you think they look alike?


This year we had a great Thanksgiving! We spent the day down in Ephraim with Todd's family. We watched the Macy day parade, relaxed, played games and ate lots of yummy food. Todd had to work early the next day so we weren't able to spend the night. I usually like to get up early and head out to the crazy stores on Friday but with Todd having to work I wasn't able to. I couldn't help myself, I dragged both girls out with me to a few stores later that morning and got a little shopping done. I think people thought I was crazy. I love being in the hustle and bustle of the season and I can't miss a good bargain:) Later that evening I joined all of the girls in my family for our annual overnight shopping spree. All of my cousins, aunts and grandma spent the night at a hotel and shopped and shopped and shopped. We stayed up late doing facials, talking and just having fun. Then we woke up and shopped some more. More people thought I was crazy to go because I just had a baby two weeks before but I couldn't miss out on all of the fun. I love my family and am so grateful for a wonderful grandma and mom that spoil us!


Next was another fun annual Christmas tradition....cutting down Christmas trees. Todd had to work and I didn't want to miss out so I took both girls and down we went to the cabin. Isabelle was so excited to go and find a tree! Luckily my sister is 8 months pregnant so she stayed in the warm cabin with Hayden. We took 13 kids up the mountain looking for 4 trees. We looked and hiked and looked and hiked and finally we all found one. Isabelle was a good little hiker, at one point she was getting tired and she said, " mom, I just wish there was an elevator up here!" The three little ones did great! I want to thank my dad for helping me cutting and carrying my tree down since I had my hands full with Belle. We had a hotdog, shot the guns and had a great time! What I love about fresh cut tree's is that they never look the same on the mountain as they do in our house, the GREAT smell, and the natural, not perfect shape! Todd put up the tree once we got it home and me and Isabelle decorated it. Only 15 minutes after the last decoration was on.....it tipped over! It was late and I was tired so we put it back up, cleaned up the water and then I waited until the next day to redecorate the tree. It looks great and smells even greater!



Isabelle is in a little dance class and LOVES it! She goes once a week for an hour and that is not enough. She asks me every morning if she gets to go to dance that day. There are just three other girls in her class and her teacher is great. They learned a little Christmas dance to the song, "Santa Claus is coming to town". Every time she hears that song she goes crazy and has to stop everything and do her dance. They are having a little performance but unfortunately we aren't going to be able to make it so they had a dress rehearsal that she was so excited about. She is going to be able to perform her dance at our family Christmas party. She is such a little performer and loves to show off!

So far this has been such a fun Holiday season! Isabelle is so excited for Santa to come and has written him at least a dozen letters. I love watching the excitement in her eyes. We also got to go to the Festival of Trees which was a ton of fun. It is amazing at all of the work and time that people put into donating trees. We got to have breakfast with Santa and Isabelle got to sit on his lap and give him her letter. After sitting on his lap she didn't want to leave and she asked me if she could go and dance for Santa! I told her that Santa would love to see her dance but that there were lots of other kids that wanted to see Santa so she couldn't. She is a crazy girl!

Another great thing about this time of year is family Christmas parties! I am so grateful for such a wonderful family and I love getting together. I have a great Aunt and Uncle that put together a great party. We had wonderful food and then we got to ice skate. Todd had never been before and he was a natural. He did great! I tried and tried to get Isabelle to skate but there was no way I was going to get her out on the ice. So me and Todd had a fun time and I was impressed that my mom even tried it. We also had our annual Wahlen Christmas party at Hill Air Force Base. I love this party because we get to get dressed up in our new Christmas dresses, we have a nice dinner, have a little talent show, do the nativity and then Santa comes. Every year it is always so fun and I am so grateful for my grandparents for giving us a wonderful night. This year I got the two girls matching dresses...it is so fun to have two girls now:) Isabelle did her little dance and did it perfect. And of course Santa was great! She was so excited and loved the little present he gave her. Even Hayden sat on Santa's lap and got a present. Here are some pictures of that night.







So that has been our RANDOM CRAZY LIFE!

SURPRISE!!

If you haven't already noticed we had a little surprise last Saturday night. Hayden Penny Brown decided to come and join our family two weeks early! Even though I wasn't quite ready for her to come we are so happy that she is here. My due date was November 21 but I was scheduled to have a C-section on the morning of November 14th. She had other plans! Friday night November 7th, I wasn't really feeling well and I was having some contractions. I just thought that they were normal and just thought that they would go away. They weren't that bad and I was able to sleep through them that night. On Saturday morning Todd let me sleep in while he finished painting the nursery. Later that afternoon we went to get Isabelle a twin bed and then a bed for the guest room. I wasn't feeling great again but I was 38 weeks pregnant so I didn't think much of it. All day I was pretty miserable and was still having contractions, they were getting harder but I just dealt with them. We were out doing errands all day, we stopped by Todd's sister and then by my parents house. By this time I was in a lot of pain and the contractions were about 10-12 minutes apart. We decided to call the hospital and ask them if I should come in. They told me to drink lots of water, lay on my side and take a bath. If the contractions didn't stop then to come in and they would check me out. We stopped at Cafe Rio to get some dinner before we headed home. I followed the nurses instructions and it made me a little more comfortable but I was still having contractions.

At 9:00pm I told Todd I didn't want to do this anymore and I wanted to go to the hospital and get checked. We pulled Belle out of the bath, put her PJ's on and jumped in the car. At this point I was in pain and was exhausted. We got to the hospital and while I was walking in I had some pretty hard contractions, they were getting harder and harder to breath though. They admitted me, hooked me up to the machines and then the nurse came in to check me. I told her that I was scheduled for a c-section the next week and that I really didn't want to be there. She checked me and we were all shocked to find out that I was dilated to a NINE!!! She immediately called the other nurses and started getting things ready. She said that I was definitely having the baby tonight. Todd called my parents and told them to come right away. The nurse said that they were going to try their hardest to get me to have a c-section but they didn't know what was going to happen. They called my doctor and the anesthesiologist and told them to hurry. At this point I was pretty nervous, I was scared I was going to have to have her natural. Luckily just in time my doctor showed up and my parents got there. They finished with all of the set up and wheeled me into the operating room. They gave me a spinal and then things were great from then on. Medicine is great!

This c-section was a lot different then with Isabelle. It is amazing how fast they took her out. Todd was with me the whole time and was telling me what they were doing. It is an amazing feeling. I could feel pressure but I couldn't feel any pain. She was finally out and let out a little cry. She had lots of dark hair and weighed 7.1lbs. and was 19.5 inches long. I went into the recovery room where Todd came in with the baby. While I was recovering Isabelle was with my parents and she was very anxious to see her new baby sister. She kept going up to the nurses desk and asked them when I was going to come out. She was so excited and wanted to hold her little sister. Todd told her that her name was going to be Hayden and Isabelle said no it is Isabelle. We had an exciting and surprising night and we were very happy that she is here.




After a great stay at the hospital we are home and enjoying our new addition. Todd has been able to take some time off of work and I am so grateful for what a great husband and dad he is. He has been taking great care of us! She is still a little confused about her days and nights but other than that she is a great baby. It really is amazing to me that just a week ago she was growing inside of me. I feel so blessed to bring this little child into this world and I am so excited about what our future holds.

HAYDEN!!!

 

 

HAYDEN!!!

 

 

 

 

OCTOBER!!!

Here are some fun things we did this past month!

We met up with some of our cousins, grandma, grandpa George and grandma Melba and enjoyed a great day at Cornbelly's! We played at the princess bounce house, played in the corn sandbox, conquered Cornbelly mountain, road the cow train, tried to go in the Creature, jumped on the the giant pillow, had lunch, saw the pumpkin princess and finished with the corn maze.It was a beautiful day and we had a blast!










We did get a pumpkin this year but Isabelle is never too excited to carve it. She HATES getting her hands dirty so I think carving the pumpkin is more for me. It couldn't be a good Halloween with out a fun night of carving the pumpkin. So I pulled all the gross stuff out, making Isabelle touch it once and then Todd finished carving the face. After he finished he put it on the porch and the pumpkin threw up all over from eating too much candy! Isabelle thought that was so funny! What a creative dad!



This year Isabelle decided she wanted to be a princess for Halloween! No surprise but when I asked her which princess she wanted to be she said she was going to be TinkerBell! I am not sure if TinkerBell is a princess but that is what she was going to be and there was no changing her mind. Luckily my sister had a little TinkerBell costume that we just added a little too. She was so cute and excited for Halloween this year. I think this was the first year that she actually understood what the holiday was about. We had a fun week dressing up for her dance class, a birthday party, the ward party and then finally for the big night of Trick or Treating. We got together with some neighbors and had doughnuts and hot chocolate and then headed out to the neighborhood. TinkerBell was so excited that she ran from house to house. She made sure she said Trick or Treat and Thank you and then ran to show us what yummy treat she got. It was a beautiful night to be out, we did get a little rained on but that didn't slow her down. She got quite the bag full of candy and was so excited to come home and share it with everyone. It is so fun to see the excitement in her eyes and the fun she has!



Over all we had a great month and a happy Halloweeen!