Pics for the Grandparents

I took this of Jack the other day. Just thought he looked cute sittin' at his little desk.

Close up of Gretchen last week

Ginger's Easter dress. Thanks mom. She loves it! 'the prince can now take her to the castle' :)

It fits her really well.

Love my Gretchen!!!

Here are a few pictures of Gretchen from the past week. She is now two weeks old! She has been my easiest baby by far!
I feel like I'm actually able to enjoy the new born baby stage for once. No flu, constipation problems, hearing loss, mastitis etc. this time!! I am trying my best to avoid contact with the outside world. I REALLY don't want any of us to get sick...things are going too well for it to end.

From day one of being home, Gretchen has just adopted our family schedule and made it her own! She went to bed at 8 (like JAck and Ginger) woke up just twice during the night and wasn't ready to get out of bed till 8am!! I figured it was just a fluke, but then she also was taking her naps the same time as JAck and Ginger, allowing me some free time/nap time for myself. Her sleep routine has pretty much stayed that way with a little variation from time to time. I feel now that it has been two weeks of her going to bed right around 8 and her constant one to two feedings during the night and then up again between 7 and 8 is a schedule I can now count on her keeping. I didn't think it would be this easy! I figured it would be at least 6 months before I got her going to bed the same time as Jack and Ginger. Gretchen is definately making up for all the sleep loss I had with Jack (getting up every 1 1/2 hours with jack was not fun!). (I think I was a zombie with Jack for the first two or more months!) I haven't felt like a zombie yet with Gretchen and I'm hoping I never have to!

Check out the rolls on her little chubby arms! She went to her two week check-up. She lost 8 oz while at the hospital but she got it all back. She is now
8 lbs 10 oz.

I'm so glad I got another girl! I love all the little squeeks and beeps and grunts and just cute little baby noises she makes. I also love her fluffy hair and tiny little hands. I just want to enjoy my little baby the most I can. I love to just sit and cuddle her and rock-a-bye.
Ginger is always excited to see her and is so anxious to play with her and give her toys. JAck justs points at her and says "jack". I guess all little people are "Jacks" to Jack. so cute! Luckily Jack and Ginger haven't really shown any signs of jealousy. They've accepted her pretty well. Hopefully things will stay that way once the excitement of having a new baby around wears off.

Just for dad

This post is for you dad. I remember you got this when Wendy had Max. I thought you would like to see Jack-uh-bot in it. It was nice to have the other day when we were working on the fence. It was so cold outside.

Radioflyer Spring Horse

Thanks to my mom and dad for getting us the Radio Flyer horsey. All the research my mom did to get just the right one with all the updated safety features and to my dad for timing it JUST RIGHT to win it on e-bay. (That's a story in itself!)
The kids love it!
I'm so glad that it has those protective straps. The first thing Ginger did was put her hand over the springs when Jack was riding. That would've hurt to get pinched!

Ginger named the horsey Thumbilina. She likes to ride it, but she also likes to feed it and brush its hair and put a dress on it. ...silly girl!

Birth Story

I went in to the hospital on saturday for a stress test that the doctor ordered. While there I dilated from a 2 to a 3 and started have strong contractions every 5-6 minutes. How conveniant right?! So once they decided to keep me there, I called Glen and had him get the kids to grammas and gather all the things he needed to stay with me here and grab my hospital bag.

I figured I would have the baby sometime that night. Wrong! With strong contractions every 5 minutes and sometimes slowing to every 9 minutes and then back to 5 minutes, it took me from 2pm saturday till after 4am sunday to dilate to a 4! I figured since I was going so slow, there would be plenty of time for an epidural. But then plans quickly took a turn when a nurse came in a broke my water without warning. All of a sudden things were in chaos and 35 minutes later Gretchen Faye was born. That was the most intense 35 minutes of my life! fewf! glad that is over!!!! The doctor came just in time to stitch me up. ugh!

Gretchen surprised us all by weighing a pound more than calculated. Here are the facts!

Gretch Faye Chandler
born: Sunday March 14th 4:45am
weight: a wopping 8 lbs 9 oz.

She was born blue due to the cord wrapped around her neck. (scary!)

Look at all that hair! What a contrast to Ginger. (Ginger had practically black hair. Jack had none) and Gretchen has blonde/light brown.

We love our little Gretchen! I feel so attatched to her. I don't like having her away from me. I love all her little squeaks and baby sounds she makes.

We got home yesturday around 1pm. It's nice to be home again and ease back into things. Glen is going to bring Jack and Ginger home after work. They've been with gramma ever since saturday night.

I'm so grateful for such good friends and the relief society and grammas. They have all shown their love and concern and support through phone calls, dinners and 'attempted' visits. Even though I didn't answer my phone until starting today, I appreciate the messages left.
(sorry to those who called to visit. I just wasn't ready to talk to anyone yet.)

Jack-uh-bot!

I really like this close up of our little "Jack-uh-bot" (That's Ginger's nickname for Jack). He'll be 16 months on the 20th this month.

Sunday was so nice out. We had to get out and go to the river. The kids loved throwing rocks in the river. Jack loves to be outside and run around and explore.

Over Due!

(Picture Taken Sunday the 7th last week.) My due date has now come and gone. It was yesturday, the 10th. I've been getting contractions off and on for a week and have thought several nights that "tonight's the night". But here we are still waiting.
I'm scheduled to be induced tomorrow at 4am. This morning, I decided to cancel that appointment. I've always been two weeks overdue and I started to feel guilty for getting impatient and scheduling the inducement date only two days after my due date. I thought that it would be better to give myself another week before getting induced to give the baby a chance to come when she's ready. However, when I called the doctor today, they encouraged me to keep the appointment tomorrow and that everything is in favor of being induced. I feel much better about it now that I talked to one of the new doctors in town. ( I really don't like my doctor)
So, once again we can get excited that Tomorrow IS the day and that we'll have a new little baby girl in our arms by the end of the day!

I think I'll just enjoy this day playing with the kids and having fun designing a baby announcement! I'm all caught up on laundry and house cleaning. I think I've vaccuumed and cleaned our house more times this week than I have the past month! hahahahahh i'm caught up on bills and everything else I can think of! Maybe i'll make one last run to the grocerie store tonight,...oh, and clip my nails one more time, give the kids one more bath (even though they just had one yesturday), give Glen a haircut so he'll be good to go for a while, hmmm...maybe I should wash all our bed sheets ONE more time. Heck, I might as well vaccuum ONE last time and squeeze in ONE last load of laundry. (Glen probably has his secret pile in his closet to be washed). oh, I should probably run out and check the mail in case a bill came that I forgot about. hmmm...well, so much for a relaxing day! hahahahahh

Homemade donuts!

We borrowed a deep fat fryer and made up some donuts. I used the buttermilk recipe in the checkered cook book. We liked that better than the cake donut recipe. These are fairly easy to make! pretty good too!

In some ways Jack seems very advanced for his age but yet he can still be sucha baby. He loves it when we let him eat at the "big kid table" with Ginger.
I let him do that about half the time. I still prefer him to use the high chair. Then I don't have to mess with trying to keep him sat down until the meal is over.

I think they look so cute sitting together.

Ginger's closet

Ginger's closet was in bad shape with her clothes just in a pile on the floor. It was driving me crazy and she was getting frustrated to not be able to find what she wanted to wear. I decided to make these picture/word labels for these bins so she could learn how to be organized. She seemed pretty excited about it. We'll soon see how long the exicement lasts when laziness kicks back in. :)

I know none of the clothes are neatly folded, but I didn't want to push it. I'm just excited that she puts her clothes back where they belong now instead of on the floor.

random pics

We love this chair! It's great for story time. Doesn't Jack look so big now?!

My wonderful husband! hahahahahhah He dressed up for last weeks cub scout activity. He is a great cub scout master. :)

hahahahhahh i'm laughing now as I post this! He looks so goofy, i had to post this one too! ahhahahahh

Our first bbq of the year! We are super anxious to get a fence up and some grass. We're looking forward to having a nice backyard the kids can play in and we can enjoy in the summer evenings.