Where has 2 months gone?

I am a little behind in Adalyn updates so here is her announcement and my digital scrapbook pages from 1 month and 2 months. She was two months on the 22nd. Time goes way too fast.

Beach Bums

We were invited to join my family for a little beach vacation this year in Galveston. My sister-in-laws family has a beach house there and it was there week to have it and they included us. We love and thank them for including us because we had a blast!!

We left Mom and Dad's house on Tuesday morning - July 6th - also my oldest brother Wayne's 40th birthday!! We arrived around 12:30, ate lunch and hit the beach. We took full advantage of all the sun and waves that we could get. We thought we were going to be rained out all day on Thursday, but the sun finally broke through late that afternoon and we were off.

On Friday, before we left, one of my very best friends, Kristen and her sweet daughter, Presleigh, came over from the Woodlands to play. I am so glad that they did. I don't get to see Kristen nearly enough and we loved getting the girls together.

We left the beach Friday afternoon and decided we were going to go all the way home that day!! But first, we made a stop in Austin to see some other great friends - JP/Dena and there kiddos, Trace/Elizabeth. We had dinner with them and visited for a little while. Then we put the girls in their PJs and threw them in the car. There was no turning back. We were Lubbock bound!!! The girls were really great and I was so impressed with Neno being able to stay awake and get us home safe. I even got to sleep most of the way home. We finally pulled in the driveway at 2:45 a.m. Though it was a long trip, we were so glad that we came on home. I think the girls had missed there beds.

July 4th

Just like every July 4th, at least since Neno and I have been together, we headed to Lake Buchanan - home of my mom and dad. We arrived Friday night late. We thought the girls would sleep in the car on the way - we thought wrong. They fell asleep 3 minutes from mom and dad's. We took them in and put them straight to bed.

Saturday morning, the Cassie neighborhood had its July 4th parade. Last year, Ava Grace and I rode on someone's trailor, but this year, Papaw had a new toy. He bought a golf cart!!! The girls love it! So, Nana, Papaw, Ava Grace, Annabelle and Neno all jumped on to take part in the parade. They were so cute!

I stayed behind since Adalyn was napping, but I got to hear all about it when they returned. Ava Grace thought the best part was getting to through candy to the onlookers and Annabelle thought the best part was eating the candy - surprise, surprise!

On Sunday, we set out on the golf cart to find the deer that live in the neighborhood. The one in the photo is named Sugar and she apparently will walk into the home that we were in front of and she will eat out of anyone's hand - obviously! Ava Grace loved it and hated when we ran out of bread. Annabelle just kept yelling "DEER", "DEER" - so cute!!

Ava Grace @ VBS

This was the first year that Ava Grace could go to Vacation Bible School with her cousins in Austin. We had been talking about it for a few months and she was so excited to go, but before I shipped her off, I had some preparing to do. No, I wasn't worried about her being gone for a week, but more concerned with the fact that my nieces are on swim team and AG was not a great swimmer. She would've told her Aunt Molly that she could because in her mind, she is every bit as good as Marlee - not so much.

Anyway, I decided to put her in swim lessons at the YWCA. Neno took her to the lessons in the evenings and we weren't seeing much progress over the two weeks she was there. So, I decided we had a little more time before she shipped out to take more lessons. Luckily, some other parents at the Y told me about another pool that pretty much guaranteed that your child would swim before their 9 lessons were up. They weren't kidding. We only finished 8 of the 9 and she is a fish that can go anywhere in the pool that she wants.

On June 11, we sent her with Aunt Bess and Uncle MeMe to meet my mom. She played at there house for the weekend and headed to Aunt Molly and Uncle Bubba's on Sunday. Then the crazy week began. Molly kept the girls going non-stop. They swam almost everyday, went to the sprinkler park, went to Zilker park, got ice cream, read books, played dress up and went to VBS ever evening.

Ava Grace was so busy that I talked to her only once that whole week. Molly was so sweet to send update pics of what they were doing.

We went down on Friday for the weekend for my Big Dad's memorial service, Father's day and to get our sweet girl. I missed her!! I think Annabelle missed her too. Ava Grace keeps her corralled and entertained more than I ever realized. I definitely needed AG the day that I was nursing and Annabelle decided she needed to mop the house with the toilet brush and toilet water!!

Family Comes to Town

In my attempt to keep catching up, I am going back to Memorial Day Weekend...

Family came to town!! There was still plenty of family that hadn't met Adalyn so one week after her birth, another wave of family joined us. Her Aunts (Neno's Sisters) - Cheetah (Charity) and CJ (Carrie) and grandparents (my mom/dad) - Nana and Papaw, came to town.

Here are some of the sweet pics with them with Adalyn...

Her cousins Noah and Brynn also joined us to play with Ava Grace and Annabelle. They all have so much fun together.

In the midst of them being here, my husband decided to take on a home improvement project. We have been talking about extending our patio for a long time and instead of building a deck, we decided to use the remaining flagstone that used to cover our front yard. He and my parents tilled up the dirt, added dirt and leveled the ground. Then over the next few days/nights, we layed rock - well, I supervised! It looks so good and opened up room on the porch for us to actually enjoy sitting there.

Did I mention that Neno had a lot of help...

Ava Grace found a friend while we were working on the rocks. Apparently, a baby dove fell into our yard while learning to fly. He struggled and she thought she needed to love on him. I think she may have loved a little too much - if you know what I mean.

Way Behind...

I was doing pretty well with the once a month post until Adalyn arrived, but I am going to make an attempt at getting back on track and possibly post more often from here on out. I think the key is to do a little everyday instead of the major posts of all events that I have previously done. Soooo... over the next few days, I will catch up on the last 7 weeks.

Starting with the week Neno took off after Adalyn was born...

My sweet husband got a glimpse of what my day is like and now has a new appreciation for what I do as a mom on a daily basis and what it is now like with three.

Here is a picture of what happens when daddy turns his back and Annabelle plays in the water while he mows the yard. She was soaking from head to toe and he said forget it and stripped her down...

She loved it... Obviously!!!!

This was also the same day that he attempted grocery shopping with a 19th month old. What should have been a 20 minute trip turned into over an hour. When I asked if she fought him on getting in the cart, he said he never tried and just let her walk around Wal-Mart with him. It is a wonder he got out of the store at all.

Did I metion that on this particular day, he was only responsible for one child since Ava Grace went to her last days of PDO.

What will happen if I ever leave him with all three????

Daddy Delivery

Adalyn Mae Falls

Arrived May 22, 2010 at 11:27 a.m.

8 lbs. 5 oz.

20 1/4 in.

Since our last post in April, we have been anticipating the arrival of our third precious girl - Adalyn. Anticipating it so much so that we even had a few false alarms before her actual arrival.

On Monday, May 3rd, I was having contractions and was just convinced that I was going into labor. I called our midwives around 10 p.m. and they suggested that I take a hot bath and go to bed. I did and the contractions went away for about an hour. Around midnight, they took off again and I was really convinced this was it. I called the midwives and they got on the road from Midland. We blew up the birth pool and got ready for what we thought was Adalyn's arrival into the world. At 3 a.m. I looked at Neno and said, "I think they have stopped." Sure enough, they had just gone away. I was too embarrassed to call the midwife so I sent her a text and told her they stopped. She immediately called me laughing and told me to get it together that this was my third kid. They came on to the house and made sure all was okay and then went on back to Midland.

A week later, I had a prenatal visit and Shauna told me that I was dilated to 2 cm and 60% effaced and when Adalyn decided to join us, it would be fast. I called my parents and they decided that since they had missed the other two births that they would go ahead and come up the next day and wait it out. That is exactly what they did. For almost 10 days they waited!!! In the midst of it, I did have one more false alarm that caused Neno's mom to drive up and the midwives to make another trip to Lubbock.

So at this point, I was at my due date with no baby. That is so foreign to me since Ava Grace and Annabelle both arrived at 38 weeks. My parents decided at this point that they needed to go home because they had a busy weekend ahead which left Neno and I on our own.

I got through Friday without much to talk about - just a few contractions here and there, but nothing to get excited about. I did think I was having some more intense ones that night, but again, they went away.

Saturday is when the excitement started. I woke up about 6:30 with really intense contractions. They were falling about 10-12 minutes apart until I got out of bed around 7:45. At that point, they went to about 8 minutes. When I sat down to eat breakfast, I decided that this was it!! I called the midwives around 8:45 and they said they would get on the road. We also called our good friends, David and Joli, to come get the girls. I parked myself on the couch and just kept timing. Once the girls were gone, Neno sat down on the couch with me and started timing the contractions and how long they were lasting. I guess by laying down, they had slowed a bit. They were consistently falling at 8 minutes until I decided to go to the bathroom around 11 or so. All of sudden, I had a contraction hit at 3 minutes after the previous one. I walked myself to the girls playroom and knelt down on the floor to take some pressure off of my back. In the mean time, Neno had blown up the birth pool and started filling it with water. All I wanted was to get in, but I didn't know when I was supposed to do that and in filling it, we ran out of hot water and had to let it recharge.

Anyway, I am kneeling on the floor and trying to breathe through contractions that have now hit at 3 minutes, 2.5 minutes and then 6 minutes (strange, but I was glad for a small break). After I made it through that one another hit 2 minutes later. My instinct for some relief was to sit back on my heals on the floor. Bad idea... As soon as I did, my water broke!!!

I told Neno it broke and to find out where the midwife - Kelli- was. He started searching for my phone and when he got her, I heard him say, "Tell me you are close!" She was at least 30 minutes away, still. She told him to get me on the daybed in the playroom and lay me on my left side and tell me to breathe. They hung up after she told him to call back if things progressed quickly. That is exactly what they did. Within about 2 minutes, he had her back on the phone. I wanted in the pool so he asked if I could get in and while he was asking all I could feel was that I needed to push and so I screamed that I needed to push and Kelli heard me over the phone. Here is how that conversation went...

Neno: Can she get in the pool?

Kelli: Why is she yelling?

Neno: I don't know. I guess it hurts.

Kelli: No, I think you are having a baby.

Neno: Don't tell me that I am about to deliver a baby.

Kelli: Yes, you are! I need you to get the bulb suringe - that is all you will need right now. I also need you to check for the baby's head.

Neno: Do I need a glove?

She told him at that point to get me on my back and when he did, her head was right there ready to get out. I had to push!!

Kelli also told Neno to try to get his finger past her head and check for the cord, making sure it wasn't around her neck. Adalyn was coming out and his finger wasn't going in. She told him just DO IT! At that point, she popped right out and with another little push, our baby girl was in the world.

Neno checked to make sure her cord wasn't around anything and he placed her on my belly. She was purple, but absolutely calm and PERFECT. We wrapped her in a towel and started gently rubbing all over her body and she turned perfectly pink. Kelli was still on the phone telling Neno to check Adalyn's pulse and the pulse on the cord. Everything was exactly how it should be.

Neno hung up with Kelli and he and were in absolute shock. WE DID IT! We delivered our baby girl. Neno had never watched when the other two were delivered. He stayed as close to my head and shoulders as he could. This time, he did it all! He was amazing!

Kelli arrived about 20 minutes later and did everthing else that was need to make sure all was okay. Of course it was! God is so Good!

Since Saturday, we have had so many laughs about the whole thing - Neno shaking, telling me to flub my lips (it works by the way), relaying messages from Kelli to me

Kelli: Tell her she is doing good

Neno: Kelli says you are doing good

Kelli: Tell her to breathe

Neno: Kelli says to breathe.

We find this funny because I think she wanted the encouragement to come from him, but in the moment, he just couldn't use his own words.

From the beginning of this pregnancy when we decided to use a midwife, our fear was having to deliver on our own, but now that all is said and done, it was absolutely worth it!!! I wouldn't have it any other way.

Adalyn got to meet her big sisters Saturday afternoon and they adore her as much as Neno and I do. We are so blessed with our 3 precious angels.