Our beautiful Avery arrived 5/21/11

Please excuse the two week delay. I can't believe how quickly the last two weeks have gone by!! I thought I'd post some additional pictures and details about the arrival of our sweet Avery girl.

One final shot of the belly at the hospital

So I totally lost one of the benefits of a c-section this time around...I started having painful contractions the Wednesday night before Avery was born. They were inconsistent until Thursday night when they were 10-15 minutes apart. By then I hadn't slept in two nights, but on Friday the on-call doctor said the contractions weren't close enough and I'd be fine laboring at home! Hello?! I wanted to scream, having a c-section, don't want to be doing ANY laboring!! Chris tried to distract me and ran me around to 3 or 4 different stores checking out items for the "media" room. He always seems to make major purchases right around our children's births! I must have been quite the sight, waddling around Costco in obvious pain, ducking down aisles when contractions would come and placing my head on the cart, trying not to cry. What an adventure that shopping trip was and me being in labor wasn't even the half of it. Finally after another sleepless night, I was losing my mind. I called up my Dr. who was on call on Saturday and he told me to head to the hospital. Of course once we got to the hospital I had one contraction when they hooked me up to the monitor and then NONE for an HOUR. I'm sure the nurse was thinking "Sure, the contractions were 10 minutes apart." Lucky for me, I had started dilating which was quite the change from my appt on Thursday and so my dr. said we should deliver this baby today instead of waiting. Hallelujah!

They got me all prepped for surgery. I forgot how fast they do that! Even though I was miserable and exhausted, I really hadn't had time to process that we were having this baby today instead of Monday. There was so much I had left to do!! I had a moment of panic when they started the spinal. I looked at my nurse and said "Its been a really long time since I've done this!" Uh, a little too late to be worried about that now! My Dr. did a great job and just a few minutes later Chris was calling out, "Its a girl!" And I think we both had the same thought, "What in the world are we going to name her??" (For those of you who don't know, we've had a boy name locked up for years, but had not been able to come up with any sort of girl name whatsoever!) Chris brought her around the drape and I couldn't help but cry. Here she was! We'd waited so long for this little girl; our miracle was finally here. She was beautiful! She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long.

Back in the hospital room, it surprisingly didn't take long to agree on Avery Lenore Keldsen. We'd never talked about the name Avery before then. It was a name I'd liked before I was pregnant, but then later discounted it because it was so popular. But it really seemed to fit her and our family. (here's hoping she won't be one of 10 Averys in school) Now we just had to introduce her to Eli and Paige. Before the baby was born, the kids had picked out a blue hat and a pink hat and decided that Dad would put the appropriate hat for the appropriate gender on the baby when the kids saw the baby for the first time. One of our great friends who'd had the kids all day, brought them up to the hospital. When Paige walked in the hospital room she squealed, "Its a baby sister!!!" The kids took turns holding her and loving her all afternoon.

The proud big brother and sister

My time with Miss Avery in the hospital was just magical, how I LOVE the hospital. I had great nurses and LOVED having my sister Stace staying in the hospital with me for a few nights. As always, I was a little sad to leave, its so wonderful being taken care of around the clock! But Eli and Paige's excitement at their little sister coming home was contagious, they couldn't wait to show her around the house. We love our sweet Avery!!

Here we are on our way home!!

Home Sweet Home.

The Home Stretch

Well, here is probably my last belly shot post. I thought I posted my 28 week shot, sorry, guess I didn't. Seeing the old pic at 23 weeks and now this one at 36 weeks, wow what a difference! I'm huge (and the shadow isn't helping any!) Only 3 weeks left to go, c-section is scheduled for monday, May 23rd! Ready or not here baby K comes!

Baby bump

So here I am the last weekend in January, at 23 weeks. Many of you have been asking what I look like now and you can see there definitely is a belly. It feels like I've been growing out backwards instead of forwards. Bless shirts with ruching, they work miracles!

Grateful Thankful Announcement

I know, another video. Promise this one is worth it. The kids reaction to the announcement I made on my grateful thankful turkey feather is priceless. A little background on the grateful thankful turkey....Every Thanksgiving we mail feathers out to our family members who are spread out all over the country. They write their name on the front and what they're thankful for on the back, then send the feathers back to us. We put the returned feathers on our grateful thankful turkey without reading what was written. During FHE before Thanksgiving, we pull the feathers off and read what everyone is grateful for. The kids absolutely love it. This year I wrote a surprise on my feather and saved it for the very end. We knew the reaction would be worth it so Chris had the tape rolling. Warning: Some ugly Stef trying not to cry faces surface here.

Yes, he started to cry, which is what brought on the crying face and voice of mine that I love so much! The kids have been praying for a baby for two and a half years. I was beginning to wonder if this was going to be a lesson for our family of praying with faith in the power of the Lord, but then being able to accept His will and answer "But if not..." which is part of one of my favorite scriptures (Dan. 3:18) I'm grateful that for now, our prayers have been answered! After we put the kids to bed tonight, I heard them chanting "Baby Baby Baby Baby" in their room. This will be a fun 6 months.

Some of the details...I'm 13 weeks along, have seen the baby a couple of times in ultrasounds (my dr is so WONDERFUL in understanding my anxiety and doing all he can to calm my fears), and am starting to believe this time another baby may join our family. Official due date is May 28th, but due to another c-section we're looking at a week earlier. And its true, we're not going to find out boy or girl.

The end of summer

I started this post a while ago and couldn't not post it, the kids are rockstars. Summer went by waaaay too quickly for me this year! I absolutely love summer time and am so sad when its time for the kids to go back to school. I thought I'd post our last weekend of summer, it was the highlight for me. We took the kids backpacking up to Blow Lake up off Cascade Lakes Highway. This is where we took the kids on their very first backpacking trip 3 years ago. Wow how things have changed! The kids now have their own packs and carried quite a bit on their own without much complaining. It was an absolutely delightful weekend! Chris introduced the kids to Tang-which I think is DISGUSTING-they of course loved it and kept asking for this new delicious drink "O-rang-a-tang." (said in all seriousness)

Wipeout Party

Eli's 7th birthday party was a blast! He's super obsessed with Wipeout and decided that was what he wanted for his party this year. We set up an obstacle course for the kids, you can see it in the video I attached. Sorry its not the greatest I threw it together QUICK otherwise I would have been lucky to post this before Christmas!

Anyways, the obstacle course went like this.

TIME STARTS with an Air horn (seriously, just like on Wipeout)

1. They had to crawl uphill, on a slip-n-slide covered with soap and shaving cream, under pool noodles (thanks Jess for the tent stakes idea!).

2. Slide down the hill on another slip-n-slide.

3. Splash into a ice cold pool and fish out some gummy worms from a big bowl of blue jello.

4. Pop two balloons filled with whip cream by sitting or laying on them on a VERY slippery tarp covered with dish soap and water. Good thing we had a helper on that one, turned out to be harder than I thought!!

5. Hurdle a pool or get wet.

6. Get over 2 big balls, slide down the slide and hop out.

The kids had so much fun getting wet and messy. After the obstacle course (the kids did it over and over and over) we had a water balloon sling shot which I loved. It was totally cool. I felt like I was one of the kids.

Oh and here's a picture of his cake.

Happy Birthday Eli. And big balls.

If I could freeze time...

I've been looking at the blinking curser for too long now, not sure what to type. I was planning tonight to blog about Eli's 7th birthday, which was on Thursday, and his Wipeout party, which was seriously a blast. And I promise I will, later. And I guess this post is a celebration of Eli and his 7th birthday, in a way. In another way, its about one of those heartbreaking moments that come as our babies grow up.

Tonight as I was saying good night to Eli, he started "chit-chatting" (one of his favorite things to do lately, he asked the other day why "sitting and chatting was so much fun") about the summer and how it was quickly coming to an end. He started talking about first grade and the excitement of school. We talked about new friends, recesses, lunch, PE, and me picking him up from school at 3:30. All of sudden his cheerful chatter stopped, tears poured down his cheeks and he cried, "But I will miss you SO much!!" His little body shook as he sobbed and sobbed into his pillow. His sudden display of emotion stunned me. Eli has become so independent and so sure of himself. So grown up and previously so excited to start first grade. This is my boy who barely wanted to talk to me on the phone when I was gone for 3 days a few weeks ago! I sat there holding my crying (big) boy, not able to talk because tears were pouring down my face. So much for my resolve to not cry in front of him about 1st grade! But hearing him say how much he'd miss me was more than my mother heart could take. He calculated how long he'd be at school and then how long he'd be at home before bedtime ("can't we push it to 9:00 so we'll have more time together?"). When he realized he'd be at school for longer the crying intensified. Then he said, through tear-filled eyes, "But I do always have you here with me," his hand on his heart. Oh my sweet boy. We talked about all the things he had to look forward too. And we talked about how much we would both look forward to snack time when he got home from school when we could sit and chit-chat about everything that happened while he was away. After some reassurance and a hug from his Dad, I sang one of his favorite lullabies (Cuddle Down for you Wrights out there) 4 times in a row and he said he was calm enough to fall asleep.

So, tonight I decided if I could freeze time, I would do it now. I recently read a parenting article that said these were the "lovable sevens" and after the first few days of a seven year old I would whole-heartedly agree. What a pleasant boy. I wish the lovable sevens lasted until he graduated from high school. But I will definitely cherish these moments with my sweet little seven year old. How grateful I am for the last 7 years I've been able to spend at home with him. And that because of those 7 years, my independent Eli will miss his mom. Ok, he'll miss me for like two seconds once he actually gets to school, but its the thought, right?

Now let's not get me started on Paige in kindergarten....