Thursday, June 13, 2013

Kenzie Leighton Davis

We are so pleased and excited to introduce Kenzie Leighton Davis, 
our newest little blessing! 
Born June 7, 2013 at 2:19 pm,
6 lbs, 10 oz and 19.25 inches long.



After a long week of false alarms, we headed to the hospital around 7:30 am (Our perfect baby was nice enough to give Matt his birthday all to himself).  We had been timing contractions at home Friday morning and called our OB who thought it was time to come in.  Unfortunately, when we got to the hospital they were packed and there was no room for me.  Since my labour was not as "active" as it could be they sent us home hoping when we came back there would be more room for us.  Our OB was not very happy about this as he would have preferred to break my water and continue from there but suggest we go for a walk and call him as soon as something more happened.  Instead of going home, Matt and I went to Target, had Starbucks and walked around.  I was the crazy lady waddling beside my husband and scooting down an empty isle whenever a contraction came on.  Matt would be in mid sentence and I would take off looking for a "private" place.   Shortly after we started walking the contractions really picked up and we called our OB and headed back to the hospital.  When we got there they were still full in triage but my contractions were coming too quickly for them to send us away so we skipped triage and were admitted.  One hour and 19 minutes after being admitted Kenzie Leighton was born. 

As crazy as our trip to Target may sound, it was actually really kinda fun and seems kinda perfect for our story.  Target is just fresh to Canada but always been a favourite of ours.  Before it came here we would go on dates just the two of us when we were in Florida, which always reminded us of trips there during our first few years of marriage when we lived in Virginia.  Going to Target while in labour was a nice distraction with better scenery than hospital walls and it was a final impromptu date before welcoming number two.  While it would have been a better story had I've given birth on a chase lounge in the patio section (Matt thought that might happen at one point) our birth story is so uniquely us and I love it!

Dr. Mayr our OB who also delivered Elle.
Elle meeting Kenzie

Going to pick up Big Sister in our new double stroller.

Big Sister and Little Sister, when did my 1st baby turn into a giant?
Gigi and her Girls


Meeting cousin Hayley!  10 weeks apart!

Daddy with his Girls!  One lucky man!

First shopping trip...perfect little angel!
 Everyone seems to be adjusting well to our expansion.  Kenzie is sleeping like a champ which has been so great and Gigi has been here helping us out.  Elle is absolutely in love with her sister, we have had no issues with jealousy what so ever...if anything she loves her too much.  We continually remind her,  "Gentle", "Okay no more kisses"  "Oh that toy might be too big for her".  Ahhh!  At one point I went and put her in her crib so Elle couldn't find her...she was looking all over for her and was completely disgusted with me when I told her I didn't know where she was.  We are so thrilled and blessed with our sweet baby girl!


Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Happy Birthday Elle Belle

Elle is officially 3 years old.  Matt and I cannot believe how big she is, and while we anticipate the arrival of our second sweet girl we can't believe we've been married for almost 5 years and been parents for 3 years.  Where has the time gone?

Elle's dance recital just happened to fall on the same day as her birthday so we decided to have her birthday party following her recital.  The theme was princess dancer girl to incorporate her love of princesses and celebrate her dancing.  We knew the day would fly since she had rehearsal in the morning, her show at 1:30 and then her cousins coming for dinner and cake. So Matt and I gave her the gift we bought the day before.  A new bike!!!!  It took her some time to get the hang of it, but her teacher was patient and she started to pick it up....I was so proud of Matt!

A new bike!

Safety First


Taking baby Stella for a spin.


Her dance recital was a huge hit.  I was so proud of how well she did.  She was so brave and was such a great little dancer.  I was back stage with her for the show making sure she was doing okay and ready to go.  It was a fun time to hang out watch the other dancers and read some books...mommy and Elle time.  On stage she missed a few moves but when in doubt she just did a little twirl...we call that "improv"!
Heading to rehearsal

Lining up with her friends.

So excited!

All the little dancer girls.

Flowers from Daddy for doing such a good job!


Quick nap before her party.  She fell asleep in the car.
Kids Table...clearly no supervision as Elle is showing us what's in her mouth.

Cake made and designed by Mommy and Daddy.

Opening her gifts

Walking her new dog of coarse....

We are a week and a half away from our due date.  I was really hoping to get past Elle's birthday because we knew it would be a crazy day, and I really wanted that day to be just about her.  Now that I am past her birthday I am ready anytime!  I was at the doctor yesterday and she is still pretty high and is measuring a little bit small.  Based on my 37 week ultra sound she is measuring at 35.5 weeks and is in the 33rd percentile for size.  Right now they are anticipating she will be petite but at this point that is normal since I am on the petite side as well.  I finish work on Thursday and officially start my maternity leave and then we will wait.  She will come when she's ready.  I will be at the doctor once a week to check her progress and make sure everything is on track for her arrival!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Easter and some updates

I have every intention of blogging much more often than I do, and have the pictures to prove it, but it seems as though the craziness of life seems to get in the way.  How are we already to the end of April?  I will try to give the "short version" of April including Easter, Baby Davis and of course the shenanigans of sweet Elle.

 Easter weekend was fun.  We had very few plans so it was actually relaxing which was nice.  I have been working lots  on the weekend with events and such as I come to the end before my maternity leave so it was nice to have a quiet weekend in.  Saturday morning we went over to my parents for breakfast (something we used to do a lot more often before Elle started her dance class).    And the weather was just warm enough to pose for a few pictures and play outside for  a little while.

Matchy, matchy!

 30 Weeks Pregnant

 Helping Poppa make egg mcmuffins.

 Playing hockey with Daddy.

After a quick nap we decorated some Easter Eggs.  She was very decisive and specific about how she wanted them to look.  (That's a nice way of saying she was BOSSY BOSSY...wonder which parent is responsible for that sweet quality?).  We are trying to channel this into making her a good leader...haha.


 

 She is very artistic and has a long attention span.  She loved picking the colours, dropping them in, letting them colour and then adding stickers.  She was terribly upset however, the next morning after the Easter Bunny had come to the house and left her eggs.  I think she thought the Easter Bunny would eat them the same way Santa eats the cookies?  Not sure where that idea came from but we will remember that for next year.



The Easter Bunny put together the sweetest little basket for her with a colouring book, The Bernstein Bears New Baby (how appropriate) some new princess flip flops, stickers and some sand toys.  She LOVED looking for eggs and promptly wanted us to re-hide them for her to look for again.  I must say the saddest part of the day for me, was hunting for the eggs inside.  That was definitely one of the highlights for me last year in Florida, being outside in the beautiful sunshine letting her run around the  backyard and look for eggs.  That was a first for this Canadian, but let me tell you it will not be the last.


When I was little the Easter Bunny hid chocolate but since we really try to monitor Elle's diet and I had more than my share of chocolate eggs before Easter we decided to put stickers in her eggs (Matt's idea, it's he the best?).  She was so excited as she opened her eggs to find a different princess in each egg.  I was so proud of us..."what a success", until she opened her final egg and looked at us and said..."where are my treats?"  Matt laughed until her cried while I tried to convince her that stickers were way more fun than treats.  We finished the conversation with promising her  that Nana would have treats at her house and she seemed to be okay with that.  She is getting to the age where she is a little more aware of how things should be so I am not sure how much longer I can get away with some of our tricky little ways.  What a funny girl!


 Dressed for Easter and looking so pretty in her dress from Aunt Katie.  She told everyone at church that "my friend Katie, she's my friend bought it".  That's right, Aunt Katie is so cool she has moved to "Friend" status.

 The three oldest cousins after their egg hunt.  They were absolutely precious as they looked for eggs.  Each grandchild had specific colours they were looking for.  Abby found one of Elle's and brought it to her, Matt and I both got a little worried thinking she might be upset but she instead grabbed Abby hugged her and screamed, "Oh thank you Abby, Love you Abs".  I almost burst into tears.  It was so sweet.
 Sweet Baby Hayley was such a doll baby as we all took turns snuggling her.  She was so relaxed and delightful.  I made Matt take a picture of me snuggling the "cousins".  In just a few more weeks we will have our sweet girl in our arms.

Speaking of our girl, she gave us a little scare 2 weeks ago.  I was extremely uncomfortable and finally gave in and called our doctor once Matt got home from work.  It ended up being a small infection which was taken care of with antibiotics but she definitely caused a little drama before  coming to that conclusion.  They monitored her heartbeat and contractions, ran some tests did an ultra-sound and then put me back on the monitors.

This was day two of being on the monitors.  I was doing a non-stress test where they monitor the baby and I push a button every time she moved.  They essentially are making sure she isn't unhappy with her position and that everything is normal.  We were feeling pretty good about things at this point and a little bored so we started taking pictures.  The funniest part of the stress test is that the monitors allow you to hear the heart beat and motion of the baby out loud.  So we are sitting there listening to a very rhythmic heart beat and it would all the sudden get really fast and make this loud "boom", and then her heartbeat would go back to the pattern it was before.  She was kicking the monitor.  It was obviously a little tighter where the monitor was so she kept kicking it, I guess it was in her way?  After the emotional exhaustion of the weekend it was kinda fun for Matt and I to spend time together laughing at our baby.  She is super active like her big sister already.

Before the stress test on day two they sent us for another ultra-sound.  Again it sounds funny to say, but it was the best ultra-sound I have ever had.  Most people don't describe the ER ultra-sound as "best ever" but for us it was.  The lady was the nicest tech and talked to me the entire time.  She showed me way more than any other person has ever shown me.  Normally they take you in, turn the monitor so you can't see it and poke and prod you for an hour without a word.  It makes you feel anxious even when there isn't anything to worry about.  This girl showed me everything and after each thing she checked she would say "Nope, that looks good.  She looks normal, yep that's great".  She asked me about Elle and names we liked.  It was just really nice.  When she was all done she brought Matt in and spent lots of time with us again showing us everything thing.  Normally they say "here's the head (show the profile that looks like it could be any baby under the sun) here's the heart, here's the bum...bye".  This girl showed us the face straight on and we saw here little lips moving, if you looked at here eyes really carefully you could see them starting to move a little.  Her face shape, especially her little nose, already looks like her big sister.  She showed us her arm right above her head, she was laying on it like a pillow, and showed her legs and little feet all curled up.  She even double checked she was still a girl, and YES, she is still a girl! She was so lovely and again after the anxiety of everything the night before it was so nice to see our girl together.  We are so grateful she is happy and healthy!  I saw the doctor a week later and everything is still good.  He told me I am just over doing it...not sure what I am supposed to cut out of my daily routine but apparently life as a working mother of one is over doing it. 

 We were also given a movie strip of pictures.  This one is the profile.  The straight on one is hard to make out if you don't know what your looking for.

 These are her little feet!


Finally, the weather here has been insane.  We had a huge ice storm and two separate days of snow this month.  We have also had warm mild above seasonal temperatures...so strange.  I blame it on the crazy weather that Elle got another ear infection.  Same deal as always.  Started as a little cold, 3 days later she had 103 fever and we took her to the clinic for antibiotics.  She is a trooper but this one seems to have been the worst.  It has taken a while for her to feel better and she has ended up in our bed a few times.  I lay with her in her bed for about an hour but when that won't work I take her to our bed.  When she comes in, I get out.  I figure I will cuddle one child at night and Matt can cuddle one.  Luckily for Matt his cuddled buddy sleeps in her own bed most nights.  My cuddle buddy still has 7 more weeks.


Blowing bubble before rest time after the doctors.  She has been dying to blow bubbles and she was so good getting her ears checked so we bundled up for a short playtime before resting.

So that's April....so busy with highs and lows.  I guess this is life with kids.  They are forever worrying you and making you sweat.  We love our sweet girls and are so grateful that our little scares are nothing in comparison to what some families go through.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Happy Birthday Abby!

Abby turns three today,  and since baby number 3 was due a few days later, Lindsay was smart and hosted her party a few weeks early.  Abby is so girlie...she loves all things pink, lip gloss, nail polish, stick on earrings, jewelery and purses.  So in honour of her birthday Lindsay and I took the cousins to get their nails painted at this salon that had a special kids chair.  The two besties were so excited for their big girl outing with Linds and I.  







They were perfect little ladies the entire time and sat still including letting their fingernails dry.


Then we went back to have dinner and celebrate Abby Girl.  We let the boys and Nana and Popa join us for the princess themed birthday party.  We made the cousins pose for a picture and say cheese...this is what we got.  They have the funniest mouths when they say cheese.


Lindsay and I also posed for our pregnant sister picture.

 
Uncle Jared made homemade chicken fingers and fries since Happy Meals are Abby's favourite.  The kid's meals were served in the cute boxes with a treat inside of them.  Princess lip gloss for the girls!  It was so exciting and the best tasting happy meal I have ever had.   We are going to have to grab drive-thru form there more often! :)



 We followed our meals with awesome cupcakes which the kids LOVED!  Baby girl and I enjoyed one as well!  So tasty!



Abby opened her presents then modeled them...I am telling you this Girlie Girl loves her some good fashion!


And it is most certainly a good thing we celebrated early, because one week later and 10 days early Baby Sister Hayley joined the family!




Happy Birthday Abby and Welcome to the World Sweet Baby Hayley!