More catch up- this could take a while

Since I haven't posted for such a long time I am trying to get in everything I missed. So here is more of what we did in 2012. Parker started preschool. We did another home preschool with some of our friends. Paige and Sarah wanted to be in the pictures too.

Sarah tried her first rice cereal. She loved it. Still to this day that is all she really wants to eat. She really doesn't like green beans. 

We started watching Harry Potter to get ready for our Florida trip. We went to Universal Studios and saw the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but we will get to that later. Here we made our own Harry Potter wands. Paige made a pink one. 

 Grandma and Grandpa bought Parker and Paige bikes when Sarah was born so we learned how to ride them this summer. We just had fun playing out side all summer long.

 We took them to the Cincinnati zoo this fall. It was cold and wet when we went, but it was still lots of fun.

Paige has become such a girly girl. She loves to have her hair done and to have her nails painted. Steve is such a good dad! Here he is painting Paige's nails. I just had to catch this picture. 

Arizona trip

The kids and I flew back to Arizona in August. It was interesting flying by myself with three kids, a layover and a plane change. But they actually did really well. Here are some pictures from our trip.My mom and the kids. 

Sarah rolled over for the first time. 3 months old. 

We got to visit our friends.

 

Sarah met her new cousin. 

We saw Steve's Grandma.

Rode horses at Steve's parents house.

Then flew home. It was a fun trip. We love going back to Arizona. 

Parker's 5th birthday

I took the kids to get their picture taken this summer. I didn't get the digital copy, but here is a picture of it. 

We celebrated Parker's birthday on his actual birthday just as a family and then has his birthday party later. So he got 2 Pokemon cakes. Here is his family cake.

 And here is his birthday party cake. I tried out new recipes for frosting, but I still haven't found the one I love yet.

 We also took him bowling on his birthday. He loves to go bowling these days.

 We did an Olympic theme party, remember this was during the summer and the Olympics were going on. We had all the kids register and find their names. Then taped their name shirts and did lots of Olympic themed party games.

 Our Olympic "flame".

 Gold medal party favors.

I didn't get any pictures of the games, but it was a lot of fun.

Sarah's Blessing

We were able to bless Sarah last month and I am just getting around to posting about it. We were lucky enough to have Steve's parents come out for the blessing. We didn't take any pictures before we left for church and I was just planning on taking some after church, but Sarah had other plans... She had a blowout during sacrament, but luckily enough it was after her blessing. So I made Steve take some pictures the following Sunday with Sarah so we could have some pictures documenting the event. We didn't get a family shot, but I am just glad to have any.

 

I took this picture one day before church. They all were just so cute, I couldn't resist. 

I love when this little girl smiles at me. Here are her 2 month stats.

24 inches long- 96%

14 pounds 13 ounces- 98%

Head 40.9 cm- 99%

 She often looks at me like this. I can imagine she is saying "Mom, what are you doing?"

The kids got to see some of the flight simulation stuff their dad does. I think Parker thought it was cooler than Paige did.  I think this one was a Star Wars pod race they made for fun.

 We did had some fun for the 4th of July. We had some friends over and did some fireworks. Yes, we can have real ones here. :)

 This was Sarah sleeping one day when she was a couple weeks old.

 I got the kids pictures taken this week and I didn't get the digital copy of them so I just took a lazy picture of it with my phone.

Two Weeks Old and birth story

 Our little Sarah is two weeks old today and my good friend took some pictures of her today and has already sent some to me. So I thought I would post them while I was writing about Sarah's birth.

 On my due date we decided that it was time to be induced. My parents came in town that day and I was to be at the hospital that night at 9:00 PM to start the induction. So we left Parker and Paige with my dad that night and my mom came with us to the hospital. By the time we got all the paperwork filled out and were settled in our room it was 11:00 PM. And the room was HUGE! I was already having contractions on my own, but I had been for a couple weeks but they were starting to be more consistent and painful. I was at 3cm and 75% effaced, but again I had been for a couple weeks. That baby was coming that day for sure. So they decided that at 4:00 AM they would start pitocin so they could make sure that I got enough of the antibiotics in me before I delivered because of the group B. I asked to have my epidural put in at the same time as the pitocin, but they said no that I should start out by taking a ambien sleeping pill to help with the contractions (big mistake). Around 2:00 AM my contractions were so painful that I still couldn't get any sleep so I asked for the sleeping pill. It didn't help at all. All it did was make me so groggy and out of it. The contractions were too painful to let me fall asleep. So at 4:00AM they started the pitocin and then around 6:00AM they broke my water and they said I could finally have an epidural and I was at 6cm. They stopped the pitocin because my contractions were consistent and close enough. The anesthesiologist got to my room around 7:00AM and they put in my epidural and I threw up a few times while he was getting it in. Anyways it didn't work and he had to come back with his boss and they tried to adjust it and checked back 15 minutes later. Still not working... and so they adjusted again and tried a stronger medicine. And they kept trying to get it to work, but it just wouldn't. Man it hurt so bad. I just laid on my side and held on to the bed rail. I couldn't do anything because I was so fuzzy from the sleeping pill I couldn't really explain what was going on in my mind well I just expected everyone to know what was happening. I could feel the urge to push, but I just held off from telling every one because I wanted them to fix the epidural before I had to start pushing. When I finally said I needed them to get the doctor they checked me and I was already crowning. So the doctor got there and I only had to push a couple of times and she came out with the cord around her neck, but they got it off and she was fine. I had some tearing that had to get stitched up. So now I know what a natural birth feels like. I always want an epidural. Here is our first family picture. We have been up for about 26 hours here so Steve and I are really tired.

Sarah Karen Nelson

Our little girl was born May 11, 2012 at 8:38 AM. She was 8 pounds 7 ounces. 22 inches long. Birth story to come later. I am just loving holding this little girl and getting to know her little spirit. She such a happy baby and doesn't really cry. Here are a couple pictures of her. 

At the end

Tomorrow I will be my due date with this pregnancy and still no baby. That is alright I have never had a baby before my due date and didn't really expect to this time either. I went in a couple weeks ago for an ultra sound to see how big this baby was, because I always have big babies. She was measuring 7 1/2 pounds at 38 weeks. I know that this number isn't always accurate, but it feels about right. So she should be 8 1/2 pounds if everything was measuring right. My doctor wanted to induce me at 39 weeks, but I really like the excitement of going into labor yourself. However, now I am scheduled to go in for an induction tomorrow night at 11pm. Horrible time right? But I got to say I am ready. This has defiantly been the hardest pregnancy I have had so far.  I am ready for this little girl to come out so I can hold her and lover her. So stay tuned for pictures!