June Kay has a Birthday

On July 6th (yes, I know that was a long time ago), we celebrated the birth of our beautiful little June Kay.  I still can't believe she's as old as she is!  That first year went so quickly.  We celebrated with a party at our house.  The place was packed pretty full with friends, their kids and Grandpa and Gigi.  Birthday parties can be pretty overwhelming, but June did very well; especially considering she didn't get much of a nap beforehand!  Here are some pictures from her big day.

All ready for her big party (Except for her hair.  Nice bedhead, June!)

Smash Cake!

A pretty good haul for a one year old!

Junie and Grandpa

Junie and Gigi

It was hard to keep Ava from opening ALL of June's presents.

Good things come in small packages!

Of course, there were a few presents for big sister, too.

"Finally they give me the crown I deserve!"

"Are you sure this is okay?"

Nom nom nom.

Most of it was gone by the end!  She did pretty well!

All cleaned up, in her jammies and enjoying her new swing from Mama and Daddy!

Water Fun

With the weather being SO beautiful lately, we have been doing our best to get outside as much as possible! I have been breaking out the water table and even got the girls all suited up in their swimsuits a couple days so they could really "go to town" playing in the water.  It was Junie's first time in a swimsuit!  She still does NOT enjoy the feel of grass, so I had to put a towel down for her to stand on.  It still took her a little while to warm up, but then she got into the fun.  She is pretty much a water baby like her sister; June loves taking baths (especially now that they take their baths together - FUN)!  I signed Ava up for swim lessons in July.  Hopefully with a little practice she'll be ready to swim with her cousins in Montana this summer!

I can't wait until we have a fence so that Ava can play more freely in the backyard, and I won't have to worry about her running off!  Soon enough, I hope.

Here are just a few pictures from our recent water table fun.  I really need to start posting on here more often!  This is just a small start:

I can't believe how old Ava looks in her swimsuit!  She doesn't have baby legs anymore . . . she has little girl legs!

And here is a little video of Ava playing in the water table with her friend, Lana, the other day.  They were giggling up a storm!

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Ava

I realized that I haven't done a blog post in a long time!  Whoops.  I don't have time for much of one now, either, but I thought I would at least brighten your day with a couple of silly videos of our cuties.  Hopefully soon I can upload some pictures of what we've been up to lately.  But for now:

Lip Smack-a-Lack-in'

With this most recent round of sickness/teething/whatever-it-is, June has found a favorite new skill:  smacking her lips.  She does it all the time, although she does it most in her highchair.  However, I don't think it really means anything (maybe it feels good on her gums?), since she often won't take a bite once she has gotten to lip-smacking.  :)  She thinks it is pretty funny when we do it with her, too.

LOL

The other night Ava was taking a bath.  June loves to watch Ava take baths.  Ava started doing something silly in the tub repeatedly and June thought it was pretty much the funniest thing ever.  So of course Ava kept doing it and doing it and June kept laughing and laughing.  I'm pretty sure these were the best belly laughs we have gotten out of June yet.  Here is some video, although I think it's difficult to tell just how hard Junie is laughing because she has her hand in her mouth.

The best part is that every time Ava takes a bath now she remembers exactly what she was doing and tries to recreate the event to make June laugh again.  Unfortunately it has never had the same effect again.

Sister Love

Now that June is crawling all over the place, Ava seems to think she is a little more fun to play with.  And, of course, June still thinks Ava is the coolest thing around.  They are starting to have more and more fun together (when Ava chooses to plays nice).  After lunch today June was crawling all around and Ava was crawling after her.  June thought that was very funny; and once June got to giggling, Ava started giggling.  They were crawling all around and giggling together.  It was enough to make a mama's heart burst (or her head explode, one or the other).  :)

Here is a video of it, although this was toward the end of the fun so it wasn't quite as good as the beginning stuff.  But you get the picture.

Look out, Mama!

I'm so close!

June has been working on crawling all the time, every day.  She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth and just the last couple of days has started making tiny movements forward.  She can turn around on her knees and go backward, so she can get to pretty much anything she wants eventually.  And she's starting to figure out how to get back to sitting from being on her knees.

It's coming.  Although we know this will make our lives (mine especially) a little harder, we've been rooting her on.  She just wants to crawl so badly.  I know she'll get it soon.

Last night she started say "da da".  Not in a way that actually means, "Dada", of course; but when she said it the first time she said it while smiling and looking at her daddy.  :)  It was pretty cute.  So now she says "ba" and "da" quite well, and we have heard her say "ma" a couple times, too.  She was full of da da's today.  She's learning to talk!

I think - if I remember correctly - that Ava started crawling on the day she turned seven months.  June turns seven months tomorrow (Wednesday).  Will she follow in her big sister's footsteps?  We shall see!

Sit, Junie, Sit!

June has become quite proficient at sitting.  We've been working on it for a while, but just last week she got it.  And now that she's got it . . . she LOVES it.  She wants to sit almost all the time.  Most of the time (unless she's feeling cranky for some reason) she is happy to sit and play with her toys for pretty long periods of time.  I mean, she'll sit there for 15 . . . 20 . . . sometimes even 30 minutes!  Just sitting on her blanket surrounded by her toys.  Or sitting near us on the floor in the basement sucking on an animal from her ark while we make Lego towers with Ava.  She loves to sit.  And now that she is sitting, all new worlds of opportunities have opened up to her (And me!  Do you know how much I can get done while she sits and plays for 15 minutes!?).  This new independence allows her to . . . 

Sit in the cart like a big girl!
I texted this to Daddy while he was at work and he said it looks like she is doing a happy dance.  I  looked at the picture again and it totally does!

 Yesterday morning we headed out for a walk.  It was only about 35 degrees out, but it was very sunny and the wind was not blowing (amazing!) so it was really quite beautiful.  I bundled the girls up and we headed outside for a bit. Once again, June had a whole new experience as she got to ride in the double stroller without her carseat!

All bundled up and riding in the stroller like a big girl!

She was pretty quiet and still through the whole walk, but every time I leaned down to check on her she would look up at me with a huge grin.  I think she was just busy looking around and taking it all in!

Big sister in front.

Two Punkin' Heads!

We're ready to go, Mom!

A view from our walk.  Of course it was much bigger and more grandiose in person.
Even though it is sometimes a pain to live as far from Fort Collins as we do, I love the views out here!

It was so nice to get outside and get some fresh air.  It has been hard to do that the last couple months and especially hard over the last couple weeks as it has been so cold!
It's fun to see June reaching all these important milestones.  While I can't help but feel a teensy bit sad, as her Mama, I am excited about her new independence.  She seems so happy with her new skills.
Our girls are growing and changing every day and we are SO proud of them!

Gangnam Baby

Here's a little silliness for your Friday afternoon!  It's Junie rocking it Gangnam style!

Two Months and Growing

Our little Junie is two months old!  It's true what they say . . . time flies when you're having fun!  She seems to be getting happier and happier these days, and her fussy periods are becoming shorter and less frequent.  She doesn't even scream in the evenings anymore . . . as long as Mama holds her.  :)  She has been sleeping through the night consistently for about a week and a half.  In fact, she has been sleeping 9-10 hours each night, and that's with me waking her up in the morning!  Of course, that doesn't mean I get 9-10 hours of sleep, but 7-8 isn't bad for a mom with a little one!

June is full of smiles these days and she smiles the way Ava did when she was a baby--with her eyes!  She has a beautiful little smile.  She is starting to coo more and is experimenting a little with her voice (right this minute she is squawking a little . . . I think she wants me to pick her up!).  She loves doing tummy time, as long as she isn't already mad about something.  She is doing very well with holding her head up on her own and since she can do so, we can now carry her around facing forward, which she seems to really enjoy.

We are excited to take her on her first trip to Montana soon (except for the whole 8 hours in the car thing) so she can see Nana's house and meet her Aunt Jess, Uncle Brandon and Cousins Cameron and Everett!  She is a joy and a delight and such a fun addition to our family!

Here are some recent pictures of our little Juniper:

Playing on her mat on the floor.

Having trouble staying awake after feeding time.

All smiles!

The Bouncy Seat:  June's third parent.  :)

Lying on the bed with Big Sister!

I used to hate it when Daddy held me, but now that he can hold me like this I love it!  :)

Cheese!

Introducing . . . June Kay!

In case you didn't already know (but hopefully you did), we have a new member of our family!  Our beautiful daughter, June Kay, joined our family on Friday, July 6th.  It was a little bit of a shock as she came 11 days early and oh so quickly!  We are so blessed to have her in our family, and we all have loved her dearly since the beginning.

It all started early in the morning on that Friday.  It had been a not-so-great night.  All of us had struggled to go to sleep (when does Ava not struggle with that?) due to the heat and who knows what else.  I don't think Ava was asleep before 10pm (although she had gone to bed at 8, as usual), and it was even later than that before Tim and I got to sleep.  Anything after 10pm is LATE for us early risers.  :)  On top of that I just wasn't sleeping well in those late stages of pregnancy.  For some reason Ava woke up around 3:30am.  I don't know why; she didn't cry or anything, I could just hear her up.  Of course, Tim kept on sleeping.  Finally at a little after 4am I went upstairs to try to get Ava back to sleep.  She was sitting on her floor reading books.  She laid back down quite easily and I tucked her in and left.  I think it still took her another 20 minutes or so to fall back asleep.  I went back to bed and laid there awake . . . and then I started having some contractions.  At first I assumed they were no big deal, Braxton-Hicks and all that.  After a couple contractions I thought I might as well time them, since I was awake anyway.  I half-heartedly watched the clock and saw that they were about 7 minutes apart.  I finally got up a little before 5am, unable to sleep, and came out to pace around in the kitchen and living room, timing the contractions with my Baby Bump iPhone app (such an amazing tool, by the way!).  The contractions were now around 5 minutes apart, getting stronger and lasting longer.  Tim got up a little after 5am to go to work and came out to see what I was up to.  He figured it wasn't a big deal and went to take a shower.  I sat down to see if the contractions would go away with rest . . . instead they just got stronger and closer together.  Tim came back out and we decided we probably should at least go in to the doctor's office.  Tim encouraged me to take a shower (I didn't get to take one before Ava was born and felt gross all day!) and I thought that maybe that would help relax me.  Quite the opposite--by the time I got out of the shower I could hardly stand through the contractions!  I did my best to put a little make-up on, put in my contacts and get dressed, but it took me FOREVER.  Meanwhile Tim was starting to sense the urgency and went and got Ava up and gave her some breakfast.  He tried to call Grandpa--our plan for who was going to watch Ava--but had to leave a message.  He then sprinted around the house packing up our clothes, my cosmetics and all of Ava's stuff to keep her occupied and--somewhere in there--got Ava dressed.  We called the doctor and were told to go to the hospital.  At this point I was in a LOT of pain and not a very happy camper.  It had become quite apparent to me that our little baby was coming.

We got to the hospital at about 7:15am and Tim and Ava (we had no choice but to take her to the hospital with us) dropped me off at the ER.  I was wheeled up to the birthing floor and taken to a room.  Both the nurse and doctor did an exam to check my progress shortly after we got to the room, and discovered that I was already at 10cm (!), although my water hadn't broken yet.  I was hoping for an epidural . . . but this meant that there wasn't much point.  I could have had one, but we would have had to wait for them to come administer it and wait for it to take effect, or I could just have the baby.  I opted to start pushing and have the baby.  The nurse hurried to get my IV in and get me somewhat admitted and then--just like that--it was time to push.  Right about then Grandpa and Gigi arrived and took Ava out of the room (She was such a trooper! Reading her books and eating her goldfish quietly in the hospital chair while Daddy tried to keep an eye on her AND help Mama.  They both were amazing).  About a half hour later, at 9:05am, June Kay was born!  Grandpa, Gigi and Big Sister Ava got to come in and meet her right away, before heading back to Commerce City.

In retrospect the shower may not have been a good idea.  :)  We knew labor would probably be faster with the second one, but I never guessed it would only be 4.5 hours!  It was intense and very painful, but the Lord was merciful in making it fast.  June actually came out face up, which typically makes labor take longer and is the reason for all the back labor I was having.  Dr. Cloyd commented that if she had been face down, who knows what would have happened.  We might have had her in the car.  :)

I can only praise God for His timing.  I had hoped to go closer to full-term so that I could have a couple of weeks home with Ava before Baby came . . . until I started having all the trouble with the blood clot in my leg.  I had to go off Ibuprofen the day before June was born and didn't know what the pain would be like without it.  My doctor had mentioned they could induce me if I decided it was necessary because of the clot.  I didn't want to be induced . . . but was suffering with the clot.  God took care of all that.  Although the clot is still there and I will be having surgery on it (possibly two surgeries) in the next couple months, it is no longer painful.  His timing was also perfect in that we had just gotten our couch and bed for the basement delivered the day before I went into labor.  I had managed to get the bed made that day and cleaned the new bathroom to make it usable.  Otherwise Nana and Papa Ernie wouldn't have had anywhere to stay when they came that night!

Three weeks later I still sometimes can't believe that our little "surprise" baby is here.  :)  After 9 months of anticipation, it all happened so quickly.  But she is such a joy to the three of us.  So far she seems to have a sweet, quiet personality, and has been a very easy baby.  Ava has had some trouble adjusting to all of the recent changes in her life, but I think she does genuinely like June (it's Mom and Dad she doesn't always like!).  This week has been much better with Ava and I think we are turning a corner.  I look forward to the days when the girls will be playmates; although I wish neither of them would get bigger!  It all just happens too fast.  I am doing my best to enjoy each day with these two little blessings, no matter how challenging they might be sometimes.

And that is June's birth story, in a nutshell.  Here are some pictures of our sweet baby for you to enjoy.

Ava hanging out at the hospital

Just came home from the hospital in a torrential downpour

June and Nana.  Nana and Papa Ernie were able to come visit right away, which was so fun!

First trip to church!