December...

So December is here. I had to work on Thanksgiving so I didn't get any pictures of everyone else enjoying dinner! I thought I would share with you our Christmas tree. I love real trees they smell so good and this year it was so much fun to have Haiden around to help me decorate! Haiden has been really good about not touching the decorations, although baby Jesus was missing from my nativity for four days! I am not sure I am ready to deal with presents under the tree just yet.

 
On another note, Haiden and Lexi were entertaining each other today and I caught this on video. I just can't get over Lexi's laugh. I could listen to this forever! I hope it works.

Catching up!

I have alot of catching up to do so the best way is going to be pictures.October was a busy month for us here is a few things that went on. Sorry the pictures are blurry. I need to fix my camera settings and my children don't like to hold still.

Haiden had surgery to release her trigger thumb. Her left thumb was completely stuck at about a 30 degree angle. This picture was just after we got home from the hospital. She refused to take the hospital gown off.

I am a bad mom and didn't snap any pictures on Halloween but this is Haiden in her Halloween pajamas. They were glow in the dark.

Carving pumpkins!!!

Joe and Haiden being goofy!!

My cute girls!

Gotta love patching pajamas!!!

Eating cereal for the first time.

Haiden's room

Thanks to my good friend Kara, Haiden's room got a small but much needed make over!!! Her walls have been all white since we bought the house to year's ago and it just so happens that all the furniture we have collected for her room has been white as well. Needless to say, it was pretty drab. Finally I was tired of looking at it. Kara had offered to paint it while I was pregnant but we just never got around to it. This week I had seen enough. So she took her day off and painted. We love it. Such a simple color but man it adds character. I only wish I would have taken a before picture so you could see how big of a difference it made. Thanks again Kara! We owe you!

Pumpkin Patch!

Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch and picked out some pumpkins to carve. Haiden loved it. The whole time she kept saying "look at all the pumpkins dad!" It was funny. We even managed to snap a few pictures.

3 months already!

Gotta love those cheeks!!!

2 months old!

We had snapped one two many pictures!!

Okay so I am a little slow at posting this because technically she is like 2 1/2 months old but give and girl a break. Lexi's 2 month stats are as follows:

Weight: 12 lbs 15 oz (92% tile)

Height: 23 1/4 in. (79% tile)

So basically she is huge!!! We love her chubby little legs and face though and I'm sure that she gets tired of all the kisses!! She is really doing great. Her labs came back this month worse than they were before so we are making a few adjustments to the medication schedule. Hopefully next month will be a different story. But as far as we are concerned she is happy and healthy. I even managed to catch her smile on camera. She has been smiling for about a month now but I never had the camera at the right time.Even then the good smile is on my phone. Our next challenge, taking a bottle!!! She is a stubborn little thing!

Exhausted!

I babysat a little girl today that is Haiden's age. They were pretty good together, I only had to break up a few fights. You know how two year olds are! I have had a really hard time getting Haiden to nap lately. Ever since I took her pacifier away the only time I can get her to sleep is in the car. At 4 o'clock today the little girl left and I finally decided to take a shower!! I turned a movie on for Haiden and when I went down to check on her, I found this. Yes, she got into the popcorn maker. Yes, she made a HUGE mess. And Yes she fell asleep! Poor girl was exhausted!!!

Alexis Michelle Cullumber

 It is hard to believe that my baby is already 6 weeks old!! It has flown by. I have debated about writing this post but in the end decided that it would be okay. About 3 weeks ago I received a phone call from our pediatrician telling us that one of the tests on the newborn screening came back abnormal. He threw out some big words explaining to me what it was and told me that we needed to go to the lab and have her blood drawn as soon as possible for more definitive testing. He went on to tell me that in the meantime I needed to watch her for any floppiness or extreme sleepiness. I thought to myself, hello I have a newborn, she fits both of those explanations!!! Regardless, Joe and I took her in to have blood drawn. I wrote down the name of the labs they were testing and went home and did some research. I was anxious all weekend due to my findings and by the time the Dr called on Monday with the results, I had pretty much prepared myself for what he was going to say. Monday came along and the phone call I expected came. The labs again had come back abnormal and the Dr wanted to see us that afternoon to talk about it. Alexis has a condition called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. Basically her adrenal glands don't produce any Aldosterone (the hormone that regulates salt balance) or Cortisol (the "stress" hormone, also responsible for blood pressure regulation, glucose metabolism and alot of other things). Treatment for this is basically steroids three times a day for life to replace what is missing. With this treatment she should grow and develop normally. Blood draws once a month for the first year or so put a damper on things but when the doctor tells you that without treatment she would eventually crash and die it puts everything into perspective. The scary thing is that only about 19 states test for this condition on the newborn screening tests and from my research I read that most babies that are untreated crash within the first 6 weeks of life. I am extremely grateful for such a wonderful pediatrician who spent over an hour with me answering questions last week and for family who have been so concerned and supportive.

    On a happier note, She is doing awesome. She is growing like a weed and last week at the Dr's she tipped the scale at 10 lbs. I am afraid she is going to outgrow all the clothes I saved from Haiden. She has these cute little leg rolls and knee dimples. Oh well I guess I will have to do some shopping. We are blessing her on Sunday but I snapped some pictures of her the other day while I was playing around with the camera. 

Birthday Party! Grandpa gave Haiden her first bike!

This is typically the look Alexis has on her face when Haiden is around!!

Haiden and her best bud Peyton

The month of July has seriously flown by. It's been full of fun and trials but we are surviving and when I look at my two beautiful kids it makes it all worth it. Haiden is getting used to having someone else around and is learning to share the attention.We have spent lots of time outside with family and friends.

Happy Birthday Haiden!

My baby celebrated her 2nd birthday yesterday! It was a bittersweet day. On one hand I love seeing how big she is getting and how much she is changing and learning everyday. On the other hand it is just a reminder how fast time flies by! Some things about Haiden: - she loves animals and is fearless when it comes to touching them or chasing after them. - She loves to sing and dance - She loves watching movies - She can count from 4-10 without any help (We are still working on 1-3!) -She weighed in at a whopping 23 lbs at her Dr. Appt. - She loves being outside and collecting rocks -She loves reading books -She loves her baby sister
We are so lucky to have such a sweet girl in our home. We are so blessed to have her around and just love her to pieces!
I tried to have the girl's pictures taken the other day, Haiden's turned out cute but Alexis did not want to cooperate and let's be honest I hated the pictures that we got of her and when it came time for the two of them together they were both spent. So here's what you get,



And as soon as i find where Haiden has hidden my camera, I will post some birthday party pics!

Oh to be a kid again!!

Yesterday at my parent's house Haiden decided she wanted to play in the water so she immediately stripped down to her birthday suit and went about her business! To avoid offending any passing traffic we talked her into putting on her Aunt Kellie's Tankini top. And well you see the result. Not so bad until she bent over!!!! Oh well, kids can get away with stuff like that.



On another noted I am terrible when it comes to picture taking with Alexis. I have oodles of pictures of Haiden as a baby but I am really slacking these days. I managed to snap a few yesterday. She is getting so big already!

Cherish the moment....

I love this picture!!! My girls are so stinking cute, however I just wish that it was this way all the time. People keep asking how we are doing and how Haiden is coping with a new face in the house. Honestly, we are doing great. I feel good, baby is healthy and although we don't sleep alot right now things are really pretty good. Haiden loves her sister, she hasn't learned quite how to say her name yet so she just calls her baby. Every once in awhile she asks to hold the baby. It lasts about 10 sec and then she is done but it's cute anyways. Haiden is having a little trouble with the fact that mom and dad's attention is split now between two kids. Even before the baby came she was clingy to me and didn't want Joe to help her with anything. Now it's even worse and she seems to cry alot. I feel bad, I don't want her to think that we don't love her anymore so I am trying really hard to be patient and give her as much attention as possible. I knew this would be hard but not sure I was really prepared. Oh the joys of parenthood!!!! It's so worth it though. I could not imagine life any other way!

And her name is.......

Alexis Michelle Cullumber!!!

Baby Girl Cullumber!!

No name yet but we are so excited that she is here. She arrived 6/16/10 at 6:31 pm. Weighing in at a whopping 7 lbs 11 oz and 20 1/2 in. long. Lots of blonde hair!! A little sooner than expected, I went for my 39 week visit and my blood pressure was high so he sent me straight up to labor and delivery to be induced. All went pretty well. Haiden is very excited and can't stop talking about baby!!! Here's some pictures for you to enjoy.

This is a picture of Haiden on the day she was born, what do you think, Sisters?

I guess I deserved that.....

So Thursday morning I was trying to clean up breakfast and get ready for work and what not. Haiden was really trying hard to get me to stop what I was doing and play with her. Her new thing to do is put all her babies to sleep, each one with their own blanket mind you and then shut all the bedroom doors. Five minutes later we have to go wake them all up and then repeat the process. It's cute but I was running late anyways and didn't have time to stop and play. (I sound like a terrible mom, I know) We recently bought her a miniature pic nic table. Since the weather has been so crappy the table is now residing in my living room. I pulled out the crayons and the coloring book and told her that she needed to sit at her table and color until mom was ready to go. What was I thinking!!! About ten minutes later I came out to check on her cause she had been pretty quiet. Quiet turns out is not always a good sound, turns out she thought it would be more fun to color everywhere else except the coloring book. Yes that's right, black crayon all over my brown walls!!! I guess I deserved that since I would not play with her but she still got in trouble. I panicked a little at first because the paint on the walls is different all together and I wasn't sure what I could do to get the crayon out. Turns out WD-40 is good for more than just door squeaks! Gotta love those kids and their creativity though!
On another note, We are down to about 5 1/2 weeks until baby girl number two arrives. We have no name yet, not even an idea really so if you have any good ones send them our way.
Joe has run off to China this week for business and took our camera so I can't post any pictures. When he gets back I will try and get some updated pictures up. In the meantime, my goal is to have Haiden potty trained before he gets back. Any suggestions?

Baby Animal Days!

Like most of the children in Cache Valley, Haiden and I attended Baby Animal days last weekend! She had so much fun looking and petting all the animals. Her favorite was being in the goat pen and chasing all the baby goats around. It was difficult trying to get her to understand why we had to stand in line for 30 minutes to see the bunnies but in the end it was worth it. It was a nice warm day and it felt so good to be outside! Here are a few pictures from our day.

Dear Mother Nature-

Dear Mother Nature,
This was a cruel April Fools Joke you played on us.

While I am grateful to have drinking water in the summer, we are running out of things to do inside the house. I have resorted to this: Yes, I decided that since I couldn't go outside and play because it was so cold, I would take all of my mom's dish towels and spread them out in the kitchen. I couldn't think of anything else to do. I had already colored, played with blocks, babies, bears, watched Shrek, taken a nap and eaten. I was out of ideas and let's face it so was my mom. I am ready to go to the park and swing and swim and all the things that you are supposed to be able to do in April. Please be kind to us and give us some warm weather for awhile. I could really use the fresh air and mom could use the exercise!!! Her belly is getting so big these days.
Sincerely,
Haiden
(I wouldn't hold still for the pictures and mom's camera is slow, so I look like I have ghost arms)

As Of Lately.....

So I have been a blog slacker lately but Haiden keeps me pretty busy!! And every time I touch the computer Haiden thinks we need to watch cartoons! So anyways we have been trying to get everything ready for this baby to come, I know I have a few months left but I wanted Haiden to get used to a big girl bed! The transition has not been as bad as expected. The biggest problem we have had is getting her to go to sleep by herself. Once she is asleep it's fine but we have to lay with her until that point. Any advice from you veteran parents would be appreciated? So here are some pictures of her new bed for all to enjoy!
We also took a trip to park city last weekend. I only managed to get one picture of Joe and Haiden riding a mechanical horse at the outlet malls! We had a really fun weekend though. Joe and I went skiing (Yes that's right I went skiing!! It felt so good to be able to still ski!) I was especially exhausted the next day but it was worth it. Then we wandered around downtown park city one day and basically just relaxed! It was a great weekend that ended much to quickly.
Not much else going on here. I would post a picture of my pregnant belly but I cant seem to take a good one by myself so i will leave that image for all your own imaginations. Let's just say I definitely look pregnant. Only 14 weeks left to go.

Bordeom!

Last week Haiden had a pretty nasty cold and the weather wasn't much better so we spent alot of time inside the house. By the end of the week we were both a little stir crazy. Haiden was getting ornery because I was making her try on her some clothes. When i was finished, I let her just hang out in her diaper. (She loves hanging out without clothes) However we went into the kitchen and she insisted that her snowboots be put on and well the result was this......
I just had to take a picture!! Check out those knee rolls! What a cutie! Now let's bring on Spring!

IT'S A...........

GIRL!!!

So we found out today that we are having another girl! It will be fun to have two of them so close together, plus I saved ALL of Haiden's clothes (some even have tags still) so as long as they are about the same size we are all prepared! Think of the money we will save! I am sure that I will find a thing or two that this baby just has to have. Anyway, I don't have a way to post the pictures but things look good. We are right on track for a June 24th due date unless I can convince the doctor to take me early!
On another note...... This so called 82% accuracy rate with this test was a huge waste of $30! Boy was it wrong.