Grandma & Grandpa Estes

The week before Christmas Jared's parents came up from the Phoenix area to visit for about a week. They got to see Delilah for the first time and Addison was so super excited to see them.

For a little while it didn't seem like they were ever going to get here. They broke their necks trying to come see us...LITERALLY! Well, my father in law did anyway. They were in a really bad car accident near Nephi that totaled their car, broke my father in law's neck and banged my mother in law up pretty bad. It was quite scary when we got the call late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. Jared went to the Provo hospital where his dad was taken to get his parents. He and his mom headed to the impound yard to get all of their possessions out of their car and then back to the hospital to get his dad once he was released. On the way back to our house they got a flat tire on the freeway so Jared had to pull off in the snow to change it. After that they were finally on their way. Luckily the accident was not their fault, and considering the severity of it their injuries could have been much worse.

We had a lot of fun visiting with them. I didn't get to hold Delilah all that much with Grandma being around, but since this is my first baby that she doesn't get to live by I had to oblige! Why is it that grandmas are so good with babies? Both of the grandmas are like infant sleeping pills. They can always get my babies to sleep even if they've been fussy for me. What's up with that? Addison & Urban loved having them around and getting some extra attention too. There were lots of loves & cuddles.
We did some shopping (grandma's favorite past time), visited Temple Square, watched Max & Ruby and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (the kids thought the name was funny so they wanted to watch it), played silly car games, made casseroles in our mouths (thanks for that by the way, we still use it to get Addison to eat better), sang songs & read books.

Jared and I had not even started our Christmas shopping by the time they got here so two nights after the kids went to bed we headed out to get it all done. It was so nice to be able to go out alone together. Otherwise we would have either had to take turns going or take the kids and try to hide things in the cart while distracting them.

My mother in law finished re-upholstering my chaise. She started it last year when they came to visit. I was supposed to finish it, but to be quite honest I never even attempted it because the task was a bit overwhelming for me. I knew I would mess it up somehow. I felt bad putting her to work, but she did a great job, it looks professional.

My father in law got me addicted to the General Tso's chicken in Wal-mart's deli. It is so yummy. I want it all the time now.

I feel so bad that their trip started out the way that it did, but I am so thankful that they're both okay. We had a wonderful week with them, it went by too fast. Although I was glad to get our bed back. The air mattress we were sleeping on kept losing air during the night, we kept waking up on the floor. Oh well, I'd do it again any time. We already miss you guys so much. Thanks for coming to visit. You are welcome any time. We love you. Take care of yourselves and get better soon!

This Christmas

December is almost over and I haven't posted a thing about this Christmas season. This month seemed to just fly by. I feel like I barely got all of the decorations put up and now it's time to take them down.

I love Christmas time. Faith strengthening experiences always seem to present themselves and this year was no exception.

We had a wonderful first Christmas with Delilah. It's always fun to celebrate the "firsts". We didn't take her to see Santa which I'm kind of sad about but she's still so young & little to be around a lot of people with so much sickness going around. Jared took Addison & Urban to our ward Christmas party though and they were able to sit on Santa's lap there. I knew Addi would be fine, but I wasn't sure about the Urbster. He's very temperamental these days. But Jared said that he did really well with Santa. I'm sure the fact that he had candy to give out had something to do with it.

Here are the kiddos on Christmas eve after we got home from our annual appetizer dinner at Aunt Heather's house.

We always let the kids open one present on Christmas eve and it's always cute pajamas to wear that night (I think everyone has this same tradition!).

This year their Aunt Julie & Uncle Jason sent pajamas up for them and they were adorable. They did such a good job picking out exactly what each of the kids are into. Addison & Urban were super excited. THANK YOU SO MUCH! We love you guys.

Opening presents Christmas morning.

Well what do you know, he got some super hero dress up stuff. Doesn't he look cute as Spider man? Hopefully now he'll stay away from the Snow White dress. Probably not though. After all of the presents were opened we found Urban playing with the Barbie stuff Addison got and Addison was playing with the G.I. Joe stuff Urban got. They seem to be a bit confused.

I love these two pictures. They really do love each other...and sometimes they even act like it!

Daddy multi-tasking. =)

And of course I didn't get a single picture of the entire family but don't you worry your pretty little heads, I'll be putting my sister to work very soon.

I don't like it!

Nope, not one little bit. Delilah's hips are displaced so she has to wear leg braces that spread her knees out and pushes them up in order to force the ball into the socket. The contraption is more like a full body harness. It goes up over her shoulders and around her chest. It probably doesn't bother her nearly as much as it bothers me (babies are pretty limber) but it just looks so uncomfortable. It makes every little tiny task like changing her diaper, dressing her or nursing her much harder than it needs to be. It is also much more difficult to snuggle and cuddle her close because of the position of her legs, which is by far the worst part. Oh yeah, did I mention that she hasn't slept more than 30 minutes at a time since the braces were put on her Monday morning? We're all just a wee bit exhausted around here. I know that in the whole scheme of things this really is not a big deal at all. Considering all things that could be wrong this is truly a minor issue with a simple fix. I know I should not be complaining but I am tired and feeling whiny so you all get to listen to me! =)

She reminds me a little bit of a marionette doll. Her little brace looks like strings that I could just tug on and make her dance. Oh well, even in her new little get up she's still absolutely adorable (at least to her mother). At least it's not like Forrest Gump's metal leg braces! That's what I kept picturing when they first told me she needed leg braces. Oh my crazy imagination.

Hmmm...

I think this boy will be getting some super hero dress up stuff for Christmas. And perhaps a brother would be nice too!

'NUFF SAID!

More pictures

My fabulous photographer sister has my maternity, birth story & newborn pictures set up on a website if you would like to see them. I absolutely love them. It brought tears to my eyes to watch the slideshow. Each moment is portrayed perfectly. I am so glad to have these moments captured in photos to remind me of how peaceful & angelic my sweet baby girl is. Thank you Heather, you're the best. We love you!

To view the gallery go to:
collages.net

username:
Hollie's story

password:
28042

It will also ask you for your e-mail & first name as verification.

Hope you enjoy, I sure did.

Baby Tiny!

I'm way behind on posting and probably will be for awhile. But I wanted to get some pictures up before Delilah's a teenager! She's 3 weeks old today and already seems so different. It goes by so fast, especially those precious intervals of sleep in the middle of the night between feedings. Oh well, what do you do?

Here we are on our way out the door to the hospital. By the way, why didn't anyone tell me how chubby my face had gotten? Anyway, I was scheduled for a c-section on Nov. 20th but went into labor on the 10th. I started having what I thought were contractions but I wasn't completely sure. After all, I've always had c-sections, I didn't really know what contractions felt like. I was debating going to the hospital when they started getting worse and Jared told me I didn't have a choice, he was taking me. Anyone who knows me knows that I am stubborn when it comes to going to the doctor. I HATE feeling like a hypo. I do not go unless I know for sure that something is definitely wrong. I didn't want to go when I went into labor with Urban either because I wasn't sure that's what was happening, but Jared made me and sure enough he was ready to come out. Well it's a good thing we went when we did this time too. They hooked me up to all of the monitors and every time I had a contraction Delilah's heart rate would drop way low, like below 60, for about 30 seconds to a minute at a time. The nurse got my doctor on the phone to tell him the baby was in distress then all of the sudden about 5 nurses came rushing into the room. They flipped me over and started prepping me for an emergency c-section. All at once they were starting an IV, inserting a catheter, hooking me up to oxygen and whatever else they do. I started shaking uncontrollably, I was so worried that something would happen. They told me that everything would be fine as long as they got her out of me as soon as possible. And luckily everything was just fine. She is healthy and beautiful and just perfect!

Here's daddy holding her at the hospital. She's already got him wrapped around her little finger just like Addison. Somehow I don't have any pictures of me holding her at the hospital, hopefully my sister got one.

Addison and Urban's first look at their new baby sister. I was so sad because with all of the sicknesses going around, the hospital was not allowing any kids as visitors, so Addi & Urbi didn't get to come visit us in the hospital. I understand why they have that rule, it was just hard not seeing them for 3 days. I was so excited for them to meet her.

Addison could not wait to hold Lilah and Urban got busy reading her a book right away (that's one of his favorite things to do). Urban calls her baby tiny which I think is absolutely adorable. She does seem so tiny too, especially compared to my little monster man.

She is such a sweet baby. We are all really enjoying having her in our family. The kids just love her. They're adjusting pretty well. Addison's needing some extra daddy time and Urban needs alone time with mommy so we're doing our best to make them feel included and special. They love to be mommy's little helpers. They want to try to help change diapers, give baths & feed her, which is interesting since I'm nursing. We've had many discussions on what mommy's chest is for and they both seem to think it's fun to wear nursing pads.

We've had so much help it has been wonderful. My mom came up for about a week to help out and take care of the kiddos while I was in the hospital which the kids loved. My sister checks on me pretty much everyday to see what she can do. She's also been my personal photographer. I'll post some of her pics later. And our ward is amazing, we had 4 delicious dinners brought to us.

At first the hospital was only allowing two visitors, and they had to be the same two, you couldn't rotate. Of course Jared was one and my mom was the other. After all, grandma always gets first dibs! She is so good with babies too, I love watching her hold her grandchildren. So Heather was really bummed that she wasn't going to get to see us in the hospital and take pics. Well on the last night before we were discharged a nurse told us that they changed the rule and they were allowing two visitors in addition to the husband. Apparently there had been some brawls between mothers and mothers-in-law to decide who would get to see their grand baby first. This kind of made me giggle. Since my mother-in-law wasn't here this wasn't an issue for us. Too bad, that would have been fun to watch. JUST KIDDING!!!

Delilah Daisy

Well I'm sure it won't take people long to realise this isn't Hollie writing because she does a much better job then me. This will be short and sweet, she's here her name is Delilah Daisy and she was 5lbs 6oz and 19 in. It is amazing how something so tiny can make you feel so much love. I wish I were better at this because there is so much more that I wish I could say, but I've done what I was supposed to do. So enjoy the picture, I'm sure when Hollie has the time she will do a much better post with even better pictures.

It's official...yet again!

That's right, I have once again qualified for mother of the year. Here are two of my most recent 'proud motherhood moments' that put me in the running.

#1
Addison has become quite the tattle tell lately. She tells on her brother for absolutely EVERYTHING! Now I will be the first to admit that he is quite the stinker, but my goodness she does not let him get away with anything. All I hear all day long is "mom, Urban's drinking", "mom, Urban's breathing", "mom, Urban's singing", "mom, Urban's hitting/biting me", "mom Urban's throwing something away", "mom, Urban's breaking something", etc. You get the gist. Now some of these are legitimate concerns, but so many of them are so ridiculous that it just starts to drive me crazy after awhile. So the other morning after she had told on him for some insignificant reason for the one hundredth time I just lost it. I yelled at her and said I didn't want to hear any more. I didn't care what he was doing, she just needed to deal with it and resolve it on her own. I went into the other room and several minutes later I heard Addison quietly sobbing. She was trying very hard not to let me hear her, which is strange. She normally tries to cry as loudly as possible to evoke as much sympathy as possible. I figured something must not be right. I went into the room, startling Urban as I did, to find Addison sitting there with tears streaming down her face and a bright red arm. Apparently Urban had put the smack down on her arm (very quietly might I add, I never heard a thing) and Addison just sat there and took it because I had yelled at her for being a nark. What the heck! What kind of mother does something like this? I felt so bad. I sat there hugging her and crying and telling her how sorry I was. Yep, mother of the year!

#2
Urban has recently decided that it is great fun to play with the locks on the front door. He's great at locking the door, but has some trouble turning it the other way for some reason. He has locked me out of the house on a couple of different occasions when I've gone to get the mail or take trash to the curb or whatever. Luckily it's never been for very long. He either quickly figures out how to unlock it or someone else is around to let me in. Well, on this particular day he locked me out and I was simply not in the mood for his shenanigans. It was freezing outside and I was in a hurry. When I got to the door to find it locked I yelled at him to open it for me. I heard him messing with the locks but it was still locked. After several minutes of listening to him tinker with it I was less than amused. "Damn it Urban, open the door!" Oh that's right, I said it. I'm quite ashamed of myself but I was so mad. Nothing! So I started repeatedly ringing the doorbell and kicking the door hoping that Addison would hear me and come to the door. She didn't. I knew what room Addison was in so I went to that window and told her to go to the front door and unlock it for me. I heard her get to the door, then I heard a brawl break out. Urban was determined not to let her near the door. I don't know if he thought it was a game at this point, if he was just being territorial or if he knew how much trouble he was going to be in once I got inside. Anyway, I started yelling for Addison to hurry up and unlock the door. She started crying and telling me that she was trying to but Urban wouldn't let her. She told me that he was hitting her and pushing her out of the way so she couldn't. I tried telling Urban to knock it off, but of course he didn't listen. So then I told Addison to do whatever she had to do to get to the door. "But he won't let me" she screamed. "Then push him out of the way" I yelled back, "I don't care what you have to do just get him away from the door". After hearing some screaming, crying, pushing, hitting & yelling the door was finally unlocked. I entered to find Urban sitting in a nearby chair trying as hard as he could to ignore me. He knew he was going to get it. After making sure Addison was okay I laid into the Urbster. Again, what kind of mother does stuff like this? Standing outside yelling at my children, giving one permission to do whatever it takes to the other in order to open the door. My neighbors must think I'm just lovely. Yep, mother of the year!

To my dear, sweet children; some day when you're sitting in a shrinks office trying to sort through your issues, just hand him a copy of this post and all will be explained.

Maternity pictures

My sister took my pregnancy pictures today and she did a fabulous job. She's been waiting forever to take them but I don't really get all that big (so I'm told, I feel huge!) until right at the end of my pregnancy. We decided we needed to do it today just in case little miss came early. It was so much fun. She found the cutest little place and we got down and dirty (literally, we were on the ground) to get some shots. She has a little sneak preview up on her blog http://bloggingwithus.blogspot.com/ and I can't wait to see the rest! I love what I've seen so far which is rare for me because I hate having my picture taken and never like the way they turn out. I guess it helps when you're SUPPOSED to look tubby! =) It also helps to have a great photographer that I'm so comfy with. She made me feel like a super model. Thanks again, you're the best!

Halloween

We had a fun filled week of Halloween festivities this year. We started the week by carving our pumpkins. I apparently have very odd children because they do not enjoy getting dirty. You can tell by the looks on their faces that they were less than thrilled to be cleaning out the pumpkin guts. I must say they come by it honestly, Jared hates having dirty hands, it totally grosses him out. Every time Urban would stick his hand in his pumpkin he would pull it out and say "sticky, need wipe". I tried to explain to him that we would clean him up once he was all done, but he wasn't having it, he wanted to be cleaned each time.

The pumpkins turned out pretty cute. Jared helped Urban carve a face into his and Addison wanted a kitty cat so I helped her carve a silhouette.

On Thursday Addison had a Halloween party at her preschool. She was so excited to wear her costume for her class to see. She originally wanted to be a witch (which I was very excited about, I had cute costume ideas) but then she saw her cousin Ava's costume and just had to have the same one. I could not talk her out of it. Oh well, she made a super cute tiger kitty and she was happy.

Then Thursday night we went trunk-or-treating at the church. It was so much fun to see all the kiddos in the ward dressed up all cute. Urban was a monster which was perfect because I call him my little monster man anyway. I remembered that my nephew Blaise had worn this costume when he was like 3 (he's now 10) and my sister still had it so it worked out perfectly. He looked so cute, I want to have him wear it everyday.

On Friday night we went over to my sister's house to have a spooktacular Halloween party. Of course I didn't get any pictures, but believe you me it was lots of fun. We all dressed up & had yummy Halloween themed finger foods.

Halloween night we met up with some friends of ours to have dinner then took the kids trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. We all had a lot of fun and got lots of yummy candy. Once we got back home we put the kids to bed then Jared & I had our annual Halloween date. We rummage through the kids candy and make some other snacks then watch a scary movie together. Not too scary mind you, we're both kind of scaredy cats! =)

Pumpkin Patch!

We went to the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago before the weather got too cold. We tried a different one this year just because it was cheaper than the one we went to last year. Honestly, last year's was quite a bit better but the kids didn't remember and they had a blast. All they cared about was the slide, which they must have spent an hour playing on.

We went through the corn maze and took turns letting Addison & Urban lead. They weren't very interested. Jared & I knew where we were the whole time but he was trying to get the kids lost and hide behind corn stalks to jump out and scare them. All they cared about was getting out of there as soon as possible so they could go back to their precious slide.

The funny thing is that both of them look absolutely terrified while sliding down, but once they got to the bottom they would get a huge smile and start laughing and run back up the stairs to go again. Urban threw quite the fit when it was time to leave!

This top picture of Addison cracks me up only because of the memory associated with it. She decided to go down on her tummy because she saw other kids doing it but she didn't realize she needed to lift her hands up. They were screeching down the slide the entire time making an awful sound and totally slowing her down. I think a snail may have passed her up! You can't really see the people at the top of the slide, but everyone was laughing at her. We kept yelling for her to lift her hands but she didn't quite get the concept. Oh well, she still had fun. =)

Dear John,

I am writing this letter to inform you that I think it's time we call things quits. Trust me, it's not you, it's me! You haven't changed a bit, I just have different needs at the moment. I'm sure you've noticed that my visits to you lately have been far less frequent. In the first several months I used to come to you many times a day, even many times an hour some days, but now it's just a couple of times a week. In the beginning you were the only one who could truly understand me. No one else would welcome me with all of my "baggage" into their bowl at any time of day or night no questions asked. I spent many nights curled up on the floor next to your strong, supportive base knowing that it was pointless returning to bed only to run back to you with hardly a moment's notice. The truth is that I'm finally able to venture back into the real world. At last I can give my children and husband hugs & kisses again. I can handle most smells and tastes without feeling the need to run back into your cool, porcelain embrace. I will always remember our time together, however I can't say that they will be fond memories. Again, not because of anything you did wrong, just because of the circumstances surrounding our time together. I'm sure I'll be back for visits every now and again, but for the most part we are over. Please don't try to stop me as I am very excited about this new stage in my life. I wish you well and promise to come back once a week to keep you sparkling clean (I know how important this is to you) so you can perform at your best. Good luck in your future encounters.


Sincerely,
Hollie

Family Outings

Here's a couple of things our family has been up to lately. I am so behind on blogging but I have got so much else going on right now. I like to try to post these things just so I remember them. I have such a terrible memory and unfortunately I'm not great at journaling (is that even a word?) either.

When the kids and I first got back from Arizona we decided to go to Chuck E Cheese to have fun and spend some time together as a family. It was a rainy day so we had to think of an indoor activity. The kids had a blast. Mason actually slept most of the time but he woke up for a little while towards the end so we could get some pictures with him.

About 2 weeks ago was supposed to be one of our last really nice weekends so we decided to go to the zoo. The weather was beautiful, it was just perfect for a trip to the zoo. But man was it crowded! I guess we weren't the only ones who listened to the weather report. =) The kids loved seeing all of the animals, especially the brand new baby elephant. They also liked the train ride and carousel. Well Addison liked the carousel, any type of motion ride kind of freaks Urban out a bit but he did ok.

The Perfect Morning!

We had a wonderful morning.

We all woke up and cuddled in bed together for about an hour.

Then we made muffins, eggs & fruit for breakfast and ate while watching the rain out our front window.

The weather was beautiful. It was cloudy and rainy and windy, but oh so comfy cozy. I normally don't like weather like this, but I have been welcoming it with open arms this fall. It's been a nice change and feels so homey.

I sat watching the raindrops fall onto the window while sipping my first hot chocolate of the season. I LOVE hot chocolate. You can't feel bad while drinking it. It's warm and comforting and reminiscent of holidays, family togetherness & traditions.

We finished up with breakfast just in time for conference to begin. Conference is kind of like hot chocolate; you can't feel bad while watching it. It's full of so much spiritual goodness & "warm-fuzzies" (I loved that part...too cute)!

I felt very full of the spirit this morning and so blessed to be with my family. I wish every morning could be so peaceful and full of love.

I suppose it can be, I just have to work harder to fill my life with some daily "hot chocolate".

Let's Have a Ball!

Today was Urban's 2nd birthday. I can't believe he's two. He looks and acts like such a big boy. He's not my baby any more and it makes me so sad. I love my little man.

You'll have to excuse the pictures on this post. First of all we are in desperate need of a new camera so all of the pictures are a bit cloudy. Second, my blog has been extremely
difficult lately and won't let me re-arrange the pictures once they're loaded so they are completely random.

We just had a small family party tonight, but it was lots of fun. Some of
Urban's favorite things right now are balls, rocks &
balloons. Pretty much anything round that he can pick up and throw. So I wanted to make this the theme of his party. I filled his room with all of the balls we possess in this household and about 150 balloons. HE LOVED IT! His expression was so cute when he walked into his room and saw everything. He had a blast running through the balloons, throwing them into the air and of course popping them.

For dinner I made Macaroni & Cheese with hot dogs, broccoli and chocolate milk. These are a few of his favorite foods at the moment.
I let him pick out what kind of cake he wanted and he picked chocolate. He's a boy after his mama's own heart. I was so excited that he picked chocolate because that's my fave, but then I thought about the mess he would make. And boy did he make a mess! Oh well, he loved every bite of it. That's all that matters right?

Some of his other favorite things right now are cars/trucks, books, animals, blocks and Spiderman (thanks to Caiden) so that pretty much sums up the presents he got. He is also obsessed with vacuums and bicycles. Whenever he sees them either in the house or at a store he points and

repeats the word (baku for vacuum) over and over again until we take him to look at it.

His dislikes at the moment change daily depending on the mood he's in. Oh yes, he has definitely already hit those terrible two's. He's been terrible (but oh so cute) for a while now, but I guess now it's official. I don't even want to think about it getting worse! He loves to point his finger and yell "no" or "stop it" and he gives the best dirty looks I've ever seen. I've got to try to get them on camera. Today at the grocery store there were two nice old ladies behind us in line trying to flirt with him and he just furrowed his eyebrows, pointed his little finger and yelled at them to be quiet. I was so embarrassed.

WHAT A STINKER!!! He's lucky he's so adorable. Although I think that's part of the problem, he knows it!



I LOVE YOU URBAN CLAUDE!

You hold such a special place in my heart.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY!!!