Lovin these...

Dimples!

Our new one!

We are SO happy to introduce Lucy Marie Hancock to the family. She was born Dec. 1st at 4:22 pm. We were so excited to meet her- hope this isn't TMI but both Ro and I were literally laughing our heads off when she first entered the world. It all seemed too easy and perfect. (OBVIOUSLY I had an epidural...) She weighed 7 lbs. and 7 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.









We were able to come home last night (after we begged and helped speed up the process because we missed our kids so much) and everyone is doing great. She was welcomed with open arms by Mason and Ava and they can't get enough of her. More pictures soon!

It's Really Never Good...

To take a photo of yourself 3 days before having a baby. However, this is for posterity's sake. I realized that I have hardly allowed myself to be in pictures for the last 6 months, and someday this little girl may want to see herself when we were together. Anyway, I think my tummy is pretty funny jutting out there like a watermelon. Just ignore the puffiness of everything else. :)



I am being induced Tuesday morning and we can't wait to meet our new little girl!

Festivities

Ava came running into my bedroom the other night saying, "I am hiding from Daddy because he says it's bedtime!"
I said, "Then you better go to bed..."
She looked at me with an irritated look and said, "Would I be TELLING you this if I wanted to go to bed????"

Here is my sassy girl these days:




This picture is blurry but if you see the guy in the red Flash costume in the middle, it's Mase at his school Halloween parade. Standing in front of the whole school with a major power stance. LOVE this kid!



And just a few of my cuties at Halloween. I always mean to get better pictures but time gets away from us when there is candy to obtained from strangers!





Only 3 1/2 weeks til this baby gets here. The family is very excited and I am VERY done being pregnant!

My thoughts today

I miss my boy. Today we are celebrating his 1/2 birthday because 5 1/2 seems like a big deal to him this year. Yummy pudding-filled cupcakes with chocolate frosting and smashed oreos and worms on top. So... BOYish. Ava said, "Those worms are eating the Pupcakes! I don't want the worms to talk to me..."
The first week he was at school I had an aching in my heart. Seriously, I thought I would be fine, but thinking about the fact that I was no longer the center of his world cut me pretty deep. He actually happens to love school so much that he was upset that yesterday was early release. I am thankful for that. But this post wasn't even supposed to be about him...
My bond with my girl has grown SO much in the past 10 days. We spend our days doing "praw-jeKS" and crafts, reading books, dressing up, or just lounging around the house. And laughing. I really GET her sense of humor. Now I am not one that is into crafts or any art for that matter, but it is so much fun to see her get creative. She misses her brother and asks about him every day, but I know that both of us are treasuring this time until her baby sister arrives. Originally, I would have liked to have the spacing be a little closer, but I am SO grateful for this period where she and I can be alone for a few months.


To further prove my love for her, I have included a not-so-flattering picture of myself at 6 months pregnant, just because I know she is happy in it.

Now what am I going to do when I can't call them "MY boy" and "MY girl" because there just happens to be an extra one? (:

No tears were shed...

On the first day of school. And you better believe that was an accomplishment, not from my cute boy but from his pregnant and hormonal mom who had some attachment issues today. I think I would have felt better if I could have just watched him in his class for awhile...or had lunch with him...or gotten minute by minute updates to my phone about what they were doing ALL DAY. (:
No, but seriously, I survived and he loved it. He was a little quiet when I took him in there this morning but I heard all about his great day and the new friends he made. I was a little sad for Ava after we dropped him off. He usually sits in the back of the van and when we were almost home she said, "Mase, are you asleep back there?". Guess she didn't realize that we left him at school. And when I put her to bed tonight, I told her that we are going to play tomorrow after we drop him off at school and she said, "But he already went to school!" The adjustment is harder for some than others...
I noticed that he wrote "Mase" on the top of his paper instead of "Mason." I asked him if he told his teacher to call him that and he said, "Yeah... it's my nickname. And I LOVE my nickname!" So I guess that is what he will be going by in school. He is demonstrating his independence already. (As if he hasn't done that from the moment he was BORN!)


I didn't get a great picture because he was anxious to get into his classroom, but he is still adorable with this cheesy look on his face... miss him already for tomorrow.

Summer Highlights

Summer ends today for us. Mase starts school tomorrow and I have such mixed feelings about it. Before I can document my big boy wearing his new backpack, I need to play a little catch up. Here are a few pics of fun things we did this summer:

Back in June we took a trip to see my parents in Utah and also got to see some awesome cousins:




Then we had some fun without the kids at our Totally 80's party: (Did you know when you move to another state you can throw the EXACT same party again? We had a similar one in Portland- always fun!)






On the 4th of July, my kids had so much fun with cousins on Roland's side and their friends that I couldn't get them to stop for a picture. This is the best I got:



We went to Colorado in July and stayed in a cabin on the lake. It was beautiful and all of us had so much fun.










We also went camping but my battery died after two pictures. Here is one of them!



Because our yard is not yet landscaped, a rainstorm left us with a TON of mud in the gutter and street. We decided it would provide a good 3 hours of dirty play for the kids. Needless to say, they loved it! Now they are praying for another major rainstorm...







After all the fun, we are left with some satisfied and happy kids who are ready for their next adventure... I just don't know if I am!

So much to say...

But for now, even though we have told a lot of people, I just have time to post that we are getting another one of these this Fall. The pink kind!



We loved our first girl so much that we can't wait to have a new one! (:

Free

Our little Aves turned three years old last week. (She puts up her chubby little fingers and says, "I'm FREE now!"
We celebrated with the ultimate girly party. Fancy Nancy theme with 11 little girls dressed up in every fancy thing they could find. Ava kept saying, "I sure hope they like pink and purple!"








Here are the top 10 things we love about our little princess.

1. How much she adores our cat (and all animals). Cleo gets chased around all day but she is patient and makes Ava erupt in giggles constantly.
2. Her little budding attitude and stubborn ways.

3. The way she enjoys being glamorous and getting fancy.
4. The love and friendship she has with her brother.

5. Her new curls. (Yes, I know this one is a stretch but look at the picture below compared to the one above and see the progress!)

6. That she is EXTREMELY girly but still can have a blast playing with all boys and collecting rocks.
7. The way her voice sounds when she apologizes. And she says it over and over again... "Sorrrry. Sorrrry mom. I'm sorrry."
8. Her tiny feet.
9. How hyper and delirious she gets right before bedtime.
10. The way she strokes her lip with her finger when she is tired.

LOVE this girl and I am so thankful for her every day!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Ava found reading a little too tiring tonight.

ConCUSSion

An almost 3 year-old can say some hilarious things in the Emergency Room in the middle of the night. Not that I WANTED to be there or enjoyed it in the slightest, but I know Ava's night is bound to provide some laughs for our family sometime down the road. (:
It all started when Ava was playing at the playground during Mason's teeball game. I was just going to get her when I saw (in desperately slow motion might I add) a baseball coming right for her little head. Funny thing- the slow motion must have been just for my own personal mommy trauma- there was no time to warn her. Some big boys were practicing nearby and had thrown it from quite a distance when it accidentally hit her. I saw it hit above her right ear and I saw her fall down and immediately let out a wail. I ran to comfort her and then the panic set in. Did she have some sort of brain injury? Internal bleeding? A concussion? Should I go straight to the ER?
After some loves and a little Tylenol, she calmed down. Her eyes looked fine, her behavior was normal, and I calmed myself down a little.
We watched her the rest of the evening and then finally put her to bed at about 9:30. Before 10:00, she woke up screaming and throwing up in bed. Not good. This time it took only a split second to decide to head to the ER.
Now Ava is not a puker. I'm not sure she has thrown up since the baby spit-up days. So she looked all disoriented and miserable. At the hospital, she always made it into the lovely pink bin they provided (she was proud that it was PINK and it was hers). After awhile, there was really nothing left in her tummy. After another round of the dry heaves (gross but true), she looked at me and said, "Mommy, did you watch me frow up?" I nodded and she said, "Did you see that frog in my mouth?"
Ha ha- isn't that exactly what it feels like? And SOUNDS like? She is freaking funny!
We were put in a tiny room with a curtain divider next to two men who appeared homeless. One was yelling profanities and kept saying, "I need to get out of here!" Very comforting for my child, let me tell you. The nurse kept trying to calm him down and said, "Jack, there are children in here. Please don't use those words." Finally, Ava looked at me with a slight smile and said, "Jack just wants to get out of here" like she wanted me to convince the nurse to send him home.
The CT scan was a little drama. We didn't really want to have it done because we knew it would be scary for her and the risks are slightly alarming. There was really no choice though, considering her symptoms. The first try was a lot of crying (by her and her pregnant mommy). Then I was touched as I watched Ro take her back to the first bed and practice the CT scan with her (mimicking the machine's sound and movements) and telling her it would be funny. She decided it would be her "Great Adventure Spaceship" (LOVE this girl's imagination) and with Ro looking into her eyes (and me panicking in the hallway), she did it.
Results showed no damage. The doctor said she had a mild concussion but will be just fine. Scary stuff that I wish we didn't have to go through, but amazingly, I wouldn't trade the time we spent with our personality-filled child for anything.
But just to be safe, next time we go to a teeball game, Ava will be wearing a sun hat AND a hard hat!

You know you're LAZY when...

1. You want to text someone in your own house because you don't want to get up and go where they are.

2. The person you want to text is your 5 year-old son.
(Who can't read... and uh, doesn't have a cell phone.)

3. You come up with a plan to get his attention without screaming at the top of your lungs:
Stretch to reach your cell phone that is sitting two feet away. Call your HOME phone because you know your answering machine will pick up. Pleasantly call to your child from the answering machine speaker until he comes into your bedroom to see what you want.

4. Lavish him with praise when he gets the drink of water you've been craving.

5. Last but not least, you sit and hatch other brilliant plans to get what you want from sitting in one position because you know you will continue to indulge yourself in this lazy lifestyle until morning sickness subsides.

The sexy bracelet that is saving my life!

Okay, so maybe gray, cotton, slightly eighties wristbands are not quite sexy... but they are fantastic for morning sickness! Thanks to my sister in law for telling me about these. Esentially, it is just accupressure (pressure on a certain point on your wrist) with zero medication or side effects. Why this pressure helps with morning sickness, I don't know. But if it helps and it is harmless, I do not care!
Though I am still pretty nauseous at times, these babies have really eased the sickness and helped me function.
If only they would come in a wider range of colors...

Good thing I have a comfy couch

Truthfully, I have had no energy to post. Morning sickness (that lasts all DAY) seems to get worse for me with every pregnancy. Does anyone have ideas on things to do with your kids while you are lying on the couch? (: That does not involve TV? Believe me, we've played that card a little too much.

I just have to post to say I love my babies. I know they are not babies but they have been so patient with me and understanding while I am out of commission. Mase gets cereal for the two of them in the morning and then comes in and kisses my cheek and says "Have a nice sleep" while I am still in bed. I have tried to tell them that having a baby in your tummy makes you sick and tired and they actually seem to understand. Ava and I were lying on the couch when it was almost bedtime and she said, "We are tired. We have babies in our tummies, huh mom."

Thanks to my husband for helping out around the house and taking the kids outside to play. A lot. And the back rubs and crushed ice. (: And a huge thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law for taking the kids yesterday and for the beautiful flowers today. Tulips- my favorite.

It's not like I'm on bed rest- I just have been feeling yucky. All day.

A few pictures of my cuties lately:


Sleeping soundly... we had no clue she had snuck into his room. :)


Easter fun with cousins


Hiding behind the couch will ensure that no one will steal your loot!


After Mason's first wrestling tournament- he wore that medal for days...


With his good buddy after the tournament. Go little Bulldogs!