Little Lady

I realized today I haven't given an update at all on our little lady (Ryan's affectionate name for her). So far, Elise has been unbelievably good! She sleeps a solid 4-5 hours straight at night before waking to feed, then usually goes down for three more after that. She has brief fussy periods during the day, but that is usually due to either needing to be burped more or having to have an explosion in her pants:-) She loves her brothers, and usually stops fussing if Ethan or Drew talk to her. I feel so blessed so far, and I know that at any moment she could decide to become more fussy or decide not to sleep well at night. I am counting my blessings so far:-)

The boys are adjusting well and LOVE their new "sissy", however the past few days we've had some major difficulties with them wanting attention as well (basically they act up ANY way possible to get attention). I know this comes with the territory, but it has been super frustrating for Ryan and I. Please pray for patience and more understanding on both of our parts:-)

Overall we feel very blessed and complete as a family now!

Family Pictures

We have discovered that the more kids you have, the more difficult it is to get a good family picture. This was especially true when Drew entered the picture, because he tends to get angry whenever a camera is around:-) We decided last night to try to get a family picture while we had someone extra around to shoot the picture (Mom and Dad left today....boohoo!). Here was the first attempt...

Second attempt...

And finally, we got one (at least Drew is not crying)!

Okay, and that is with 50 more I was able to pick through:-) Oh well, I guess having us all pose and smile is not realistic anyways!

Hard at work

The men (Ryan and my dad) have been very hard at work the past few days. Ryan has been dying to build a playset for the boys, and with the extra set of hands around he figured it was a good time to tackle the project. The guys worked all weekend and what a great castle they produced! The boys played on it tonight (they have been very anxious to be a part of it since they saw it being made from day one). Kudos to Ryan and Gta for all their hard work....this fort was definitely made with love(PaPa and Uncle Brandon put in a few hours as well):-) In all their spare time (HA!) they also hung swings under our deck and leveled out a campfire pit in our back yard. All this the week we have a new baby in our house:-)

Grandpa's

Well first let me say
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA!
It was my father-in-law's birthday yesterday and we had a nice little celebration last night. The boys LOVE any time they get with PaPa:-) He received some funny gifts...a red stapler from us (like the one in Office Space) and a pirate hat from Brandon (to wear on his boat). During dinner Ethan was sulking over something so we all ignored him...next thing Ryan looked over and noticed he had fallen asleep! He had so much fun and excitement during the day that he was exhausted by dinner.


The boys have also LOVED having their Gta (my dad) around. Ethan came up with the name Gta when he was just starting to talk, and it has stuck ever since. There is nothing like the love of a grandparent!

Elise's slideshow

As promised, here's the slideshow. Enjoy!

Elise's SlideShow

Our baby girl

Well she has arrived! As stated in my previous post, my water broke Sunday morning around 5am. We went to the hospital around 7, but unfortunately I was not having any contractions. I walked around the hospital for a little while, but still nothing happened. So they decided to start petosin to get things rolling. Around 12 I was still only 4 centimeters dilated but was starting to have painful contractions, so I gave in and asked for the epideral. What a wonderful decision that was! By 2 I could feel that she was ready to make her appearance, and only had to push 3 times to get her out. She officially arrived into this world at 2:39pm on April 15th weighing 8 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches long. She is absolutely adorable and we are all smitten:-) Here are a couple pictures.....I am in the process of putting together a slideshow and that should be up soon. Recovery has been pretty good, although a little tougher the third time around. Thanks to everyone for their love and prayers!

Random thoughts

Well I was laying in bed having contractions (the usual thing lately), and decided this time instead of going back to sleep maybe if I got up they would continue (instead of stopping!). Anyways, tried to look up the percentages of births that actually happen on their due date and couldn't find anything. Thought it might be interesting to know how many actually happen before, during, and after the actual date they give you.

Well....as I was typing the message (not to go into too much detail).....my WATER HAS BROKE! I guess I might be one of those rare statistics that will deliver on their due date...go figure! I'll keep you posted.

Kids, kids, and more kids

Well so far I've tried walking, taking Evening Primrose Oil tablets, having Eggplant Parmesan for dinner last night... and nothing has worked. So...I figured maybe running around with a bunch of kids might help:-) I offered to watch Ryan's three cousins that are visiting from out of town all day, and my boys were in heaven. I picked them up around 10 this morning and they left at 8:30 tonight, so it was quite the full day! Ryan's Uncle Ken had kids a little later in life, so Ryan actually has cousins that are our kids ages (and they have another on the way!). Anyways, no labor yet so I guess this little girl has a mind of her own....no tricking her into coming out sooner than she wants! Here's a few pictures from today...

Help!

Went to the doctor again today, and STILL nothing has changed. I think at this point we are looking at going past my due date again. I need help from all those mothers out there...is there anything you've heard that kick-starts going into labor? My doctor recommended taking Evening Primrose Oil tablets or having sex (sorry to put that out there so bluntly). Any other suggestions from anyone? My main fear is going too long past my due date and having a really big baby that has to come out by c-section.

Thanks for the help!

Easter

Had a really nice Easter. Boys woke up and opened special presents from their Grandma Miller. They loved their car sets!


Off to church....looking smooth!


Got home from church and opened the Easter basket from Gta and YaYa. Had fun playing with all their toys, reading the books, and eating the candy! Then nap time for everyone!




Woke up from naps and went to Grammy and PaPa's house. Was so fun to have Uncle Kenny and Aunt Rochelle here with all three of their kids. The boys loved playing with them! Had fun looking for Easter eggs hidden by Uncle Brandon all throughout the yard (he is a professional hider!). All-in-all, one of the best Easters ever celebrating with the kids. It is kind of hard at their age to truely explain what Easter is all about, but tried to explain we were celebrating that Jesus is alive. In all the festivities we don't want that message to get lost! Hope everyone had a wonderful, blessed day as well.

Faces

Thought these were cute and captured Drew's moods rather well.

Angry


Confused


Happy!

Reality Check

Well....we officially decided on the name! It's going to be

Elise AnnMarie Turner

Ryan has always loved the name Elise since I met him 11 years ago, and it has grown on me:-) Plus, I think we'll end up calling her Ellie for short. The AnnMarie is a combination of our mother's middle names. So it's exciting to have that finalized! I purchased Easter baskets for the kids this year that we can use over and over, and of course purchased one for Elise once we decided her name. I put them all on the mantle the other day, and it was quite a reality check! It freaked Ryan out completely (he's having a hard time getting used to three kids since there were only two in his family)! In fact he couldn't look at it for a little while...too overwhelming for him:-) He has since been okay with it....just one of those moments he will always remember!

Grandparents

Ryan's grandparents (his father's parents) have been in town for the past few days. I've really enjoyed hanging out with them, especially since all of my grandparents have passed away. There is something very special about grandparents...their gentleness with children, their wisdom, all the experiences they have lived through.....

The boys had fun hanging out at their campsite (they brought an RV and are staying at a local campground) and roasting smores. I wish we lived closer to them (and his other set of grandparents as well!).

April Fools

It was one year ago today that my sister, my mom and I decided to play an April Fools joke on my family. My whole family was visiting, so we had a house full of people! Sleeping on blow-up mattresses or my boy's castle beds were my younger brother and his wife, my older brother, my sister, her husband, and their 2 year old, and my parents (the picture of the gang is below). It was great to have everyone together, but not-so-fun at the same time because each of the kids ended up getting the stomach virus and throwing up for several days (in fact Ethan ended up in the ER). Anyways, my sister, mom and I decided to play an April Fools Day joke on all the guys. We came up with the scheme to announce that we were all pregnant...in order of believability. My sister went first, telling everyone that she had exciting news that she was expecting again, much to her husband's surprise. Then I said I had some news as well, and that I was pregnant also. Then, to obviously make it a joke, my mother said she was pregnant. Then we followed that with "April Fools". Funny part is, the joke was on us. Shortly after (several weeks), my sister found out she was pregnant. Of course several months later I became pregnant, and now we are just waiting for my mom's announcement....ha! I thought it would be fitting if I delivered my baby on the 1-year anniversary of our announcement, but doesn't look like that is going to happen:-)