2 year check-up and an update.

**Scroll down if you missed the vacation blog**

Madelynn had her 2 year check up yesterday and she is right on track. Dr Wehner was impressed with her talking and the fact that she is potty trained. She weighed in at a whopping 24 lbs. No doubt she is a little girl. She was in the 25th percentile for everything. All in all, she is perfect! She had to get 2 shots and get her blood drawn so that aspect of it wasn't fun but she did pretty well. Once it was over, she was pretty much over it. She did great. I am so proud of the little girl she has become.

-She is talking so well and expressing herself. Putting 3 and 4 words together, tells us when she wants or needs something.

-She loves to 'gump' (jump)

-She has done well without having her daddy here. She has a lot to keep her from thinking about him which makes it easier on me cuz I don't know what I'll do the day that she cries for him and he wont be here.

-Loves her little sister to pieces.

-Knows where her bubba is and seems like she might slightly know that there is something going on with my growing stomach and us calling it "bubba"

-Still loves Toy Story, but is slowly getting un-obsessed with it.

-Loves to watch movies. Jungle book, Nemo, and The Incredibles are big ones right now.

-Is potty trained (YEA!!!!!)

I saw my Dr. the other day and she pretty much just said the same thing Dr. Sutliff (who was on call this weekend while I was in the hospital) said. Complete bed rest till the baby is born. She will be glad if I can make it to 37 weeks. She also said that I lost so much blood that if this happens again, I will likely have to have a blood transfusion, which those are scary words... not words I wanted to hear. But, praise God, my blood count stayed up for the amount that I lost. Basically this is all going to be a wait and see thing, and every second that he is in there counts right now!!

When we found out we were having a boy, I convinced Nat that we should sell all of our "old" baby stuff and start over brand new. So we did just that... and with all this going on with me, and not knowing when or if Stetson would be here anytime soon, I have got on the ball with getting all the fun baby stuff that we all look forward to with a new baby. Of course its not as fun sitting on the couch doing online shopping as it would be to go out and to look, and feel and decided what you want. I didn't want to spend the hundreds of dollars on a new swing that would be huge and take up tons of space and that he may or may not like... And another chunk of money on a bouncer because lets face it, you really can't live without one of those (at least I couldn't with my girls). So I found this perfect solution! It is exactly what I wanted for him. Something small, that I could put him in while he was a newborn and not worry about him slouching, or falling out... and it would swing and vibrate, all the while serving the helpful purpose of a bouncer that can be taken from room to room.

I am so glad I found it! I was beginning to think what I wanted was not out there. I got some more stuff ordered that we needed and Kinsey is going to help me make a bumper pad for the crib. Its just a matter of someone going to the store for me and getting the fabric and stuff we need.

Speaking of that.. have you ever had to depend on someone to go to the store for you. It really sucks. Sure, if Nat were here, he would just go when I needed him to... but to sit around and wait for someone to mention they need to go to the store so you can have some deodorant really is not ideal. I don't wanna ask people to make a special trip just for me cuz really, who wants to do that... especially when they have had a day filled with there own responsibilities AND my children. Its really frustrating. I so badly wanna get in the car and go to the store and get my list of stuff I need. Grr... as you can tell, I am not liking this one bit. I feel like I am letting people down. Mostly my girls. What if they don't see me as their momma, what if they start to think other care takers are there mom?? What if they think I have failed them because I can't pick them up?? What happens when this is all over?? Will I have to earn back my mom-ness in their eyes?? Will they think of me the same as I sit on the chair across the room while someone else holds them while they have to get shots? I hope that things won't change like I feel like they will, but I can't help but to wonder how this affects a 1 and a 2 year old.. not even mentioning the fact that there daddy has mysteriously disappeared . I hope that they understand that I have the responsibility to take care of their brother right now, and only their brother. Please pray for them. They seem to be adjusting well to being away from me a lot.. heck, they probably haven't thought twice about it. I am grateful for so many family members that are more than willing to help us right now, and for the fact that my girls love them.

Anyways... I know I am rambling but just wanted to give an update on Nat real quick. Lots and lots of people are asking me about him. He is have a BLAST!!!!!!! He is with 3 other guys for the week and he says it seems like they have all been best buds since the beginning of time. They all get along great and he said they just laugh and laugh when they are together. I am so grateful! I was worried he would leave us and have to sit around in his spare time thinking about us (HA!) We haven't even got to talk a whole lot because he is running to go do something with the guys. I wouldn't have it any other way tho. The work aspect of it is also going well. They are mostly just doing safety training all week and learning and taking in A LOT of information. He is very happy and really thinks that he is going to like this job. He will fly out on Saturday and go to New Mexico and as far as I know, start work on Sunday. He was able to find out when his days off were going to be so there is and end in sight and we will hopefully be able to see him Aug 7. So not to terribly much longer.

Mini Vacation

For the girls birthdays, we both agreed that they did not NEED anything in life so we decided to take the money we would buy them a gift with and put it towards a little get away before Nat left. So we did just that and headed to the big, exciting town of Abilene. I know what your thinkin... how can you make a vacation outta Abilene?!?! Well we did. We had a really great time. It was stressful at times with Madelynn totally regressing in the potty training area... and a lot of lack of sleep melt downs from the both of them. Looking back now, I wouldn't have traded it for the world!

Here we go!!

We turned Payton around for the trip and she LOVED it.

Almost there!

We spent the first day just doing leisurely things, we ate at the best place known to man kind, Cracker Barrel, then headed to Wal Mart for stuff that we (Nat) forgot. Then to the hotel for some swimmin!! Madelynn did so good with her little floaties. She did not like it when Nat would let her go but the couple of times we really encouraged her to let go, she did awesome kicking her feet and arms. Payton was just as content as could be sittin in her little tube. At Madelynns request, we ordered pizza in for dinner. Is there anything more fun than pizza in a hotel room?!?

Concentrating hard at her game.

Paytons teeth are coming in all sorts of weird. You can see here that she only has one on top. All in all, she has 6 teeth.. she almost has as many teeth as Madelynn does.

way to go Madelynn!!

Don't mind Nats severe farmers tan...

Thursday, we got up and headed to the zoo. All in all it was a good day. We had no accidents, which if you knew how many she had had at this point in the trip, you would be applauding this fact. It was very very hot outside.. almost to hot. The Abilene zoo is the perfect size for little ones. Only took a few hours to get through the whole thing, not to much to do, but not to little. It was great. Madelynn enjoyed feeding the giraffes and loved the zebras. Paytons favorite part was when we let her get outta the stroller and walk around while we took a break. She is finally getting to where she will walk in shoes so we can let her get down and walk in public. Little turkey, she is not a shoe girl like her sister was. Then we went back to our hotel for a much needed nap.

All ready for the zoo. Madelynn kept the hat on all morning before we got to the zoo... then when we got there, she took it off.

She really, really liked the snakes and lizards.

Payton was soo weirded out by this thing.

watchin the monkeys

My babies.

she is ready (and willing) to run a marathon!

silly face.

Thursday evening, we went to the (childrens part) Grace Museum. The girls had a blast!! They were both upset when we had to leave.

the girl loves to drive!!

she was a little weirded out by this guy.

Don't you hate it when you look back and all of your pictures are of only 1 of your children?!? That is the case here. This little toddler area is where the girls had so much fun... but you'll only know that Payton had a lot of fun cuz I have absolutely no pictures of Madelynn playing in here. Oops. What was I thinking!?!?

Little monkey girl.

Nat had to go in and "help" Payton not to beat up on the poor little boy. She got pretty rough him.

on Friday, we just did a little shopping. We found out that Nat was going to need to take some sneakers to CO. and all his are packed up and deep in the heart of storage so we found him some shoes. We also got Payton some new shoes. She already is in a 4 so she never even wore any of the million pairs of 3's we had for Madelynn. Madelynn is barely in a 5... and if she really needed to, could probably still squeeze into a 4. So Payton needed a pair of her own special little shoes.

Birthday Day

Well... the day has come and gone that I have to say goodbye to the love of my life and watch him walk out (the hospital room) door... not knowing when I would be able to see him again. :/ It was hard to say the least. Harder now because of everything we have gone through this weekend with this baby. Nat made it safe and sound to CO. and by the sound of his voice, I can tell that he is enjoying himself. I know that he'll have so much fun. He is just really missing us.

I am home now from the hospital. Home and on bed rest. Have you ever had to tell everyone what to do for you every second of the day... and tell them how to take care of your children?!? It really sucks! I don't want for people to have to wait on me hand and foot. I don't want people to have to take care of my children. I can tell this is gonna be hard to get used to. But.. gotta do what we gotta do to keep him in there as long as possible.

Anyways.. last Tuesday was Madelynn's birthday and we surprised her by going up to MDO and bringing her some cup cakes. She was very surprised and enjoyed us being there so much.

We walked in and she was shocked.

finishing up lunch

cupcake time. Yes... I am in a cake decorating class and I did what I said I would never do!!! I went out and BOUGHT cupcakes, and I didn't make them. Horrible mother award. Tuesdays are the busiest day of my life.. and there was no way in heaven I was gonna fit in making cupcakes while trying to get everything ready for our trip the next day, and my cake class that night. I know, excuses, excuses.

she enjoyed us being there and wanted to show us her room. Don't mind the ginormity on the right side of the picture.

Placenta previa

Well... its happened again... and turns out third times a charm. I started bleeding again this morning.... except this time it was extremely heavy... and enough concern for them to search out a problem and they found one. Turns out I have a low lying placenta that is partially covering the cervix (placenta previa). So here I am in the hospital, on bed rest. Not quiet sure why God is choosing to throw this at us right now with Nat getting on a plane tomorrow to leave for a week.. and then move to NM. Our girls lives have been turned upside down with this move, and we JUST got back from our vacation yesterday evening so our girls our even more thrown off by being away from "home" and their beds for the past 3 days. Pray for us. We have A LOT going on in our life right now and this was the last thing we ever expected or needed!! All will be fine, I will just have to be on bed rest basically until he gets here as far as I know... and no one knows when that will be. Fingers crossed he'll stay in there until the d date so that Nat will be able to be here... but if we have another episode like this, he'll more than likely have to be delivered. They are giving me steroid shots to help develop his lungs so that if I do end up delivering early his lungs will be developed. We'll know more tomorrow when we talk to the Dr. but hopefully I will be able to go home tomorrow. So far I have done great at this point with the bleeding so that is good news.

I have so much to blog about.. and will have plenty of time so I will hopefully have an exciting post next time for you. We did have a great time on our vacation. Other than the fact that we definitely have a 2 year old on our hands. :) Its only been what... 4 days that she has been 2?? and we definitely are knowing all about it! They weren't kiddin when they said terrible 2's. Whew.. that girl is wearing me out!

Anyways... please keep our family in your prayers.. I can already tell that I am going to be a basket case tomorrow when Nat leaves. I already was but with all this happening now, I think that it is going to be even harder. We have never been apart other than overnight so this will definitely be something new to us.

Birthday Party

We had a birthday party for my 3 children (no, I didn't give birth, figure that one out??) Nat called it "The 1,2,3 party" Payton's first, Madelynn's second, and his 23rd. It was wonderful day. Hot and wonderful. Like I had said before, we wanted to go ahead and celebrate the girls birthdays before Nat left.

My baby is almost 2!!!!!!! Tomorrow is her real birthday... and if you missed it last year when I blogged about her birth story, and are a sucker like me of hearing birth stories, here is the story the day before she came.... and since I have a lot on the agenda tomorrow and probably won't have time to sit and blog... this is the day the little blonde headed joy came into our lives.

This is the best I could get of the 2. I have come to find out that you take what you can get when trying to get "good" pictures of your children.

This was Paytons reaction to us setting her little cake in front of her...

she devoured it! I turned around for 2 seconds to cut Nat and Madelynn a piece and by the time I got back over to watch Payton eat her cake it was practically gone. She pretty much ate all that she could and only a few crumbs were left on the plate. It was awesome!

My birthday babies.

Madelynn didn't really even care about the cake. I had some dessert mints out on the tables and she pretty much devoured those. She specifically told me she did not want cake... she wanted mints.

Payton even got in on the opening presents. She was so lively and animated... especially compared to Madelynn last year at her first birthday. She still has another month to go till she is actually 1. I definitely think having an older sibling makes a world of difference from the 1st kid to the second.

Madelynn had a lot of fun seeing all her new goodies. She was so confused as to why we were taking everything from her right after she opened it. How do you explain to a 2 year old that we gotta hurry the process along?!? She did good tho. No horrible 2 year old melt downs.

Stetson got his first pair of work boots. :) Nat is so excited to be having a boy!

They both conked out as soon as we got in the car

I retardedly scheduled the party right smack dab in the middle of nap time... and surprisingly they both did awesome! I know that the sugar from all the cake kept Payton going... not sure what kept Madelynn going tho.

and this... is a priceless video! Madelynn is still really into Toy Story and here nana and papa got her this card. It was one of those music cards and when you opened it, it sang a song on Toy Story... and her reaction was so adorable!! Luckily she kept doing it each time she opened the card so we were able to get it on video. So sweet.

We got all moved in to my parents house yesterday.. and our storage room is packed! So we'll be livin on the bare essentials for a couple months. Do you know how complicated it is to figure out out what to, and what not to bring here for the girls, much less a new born baby. We decided to move me and the girls into my parents house instead of Mertzon that way I can have lots of help these last few months of pregnancy... and lots of help once the baby comes. It will also make being without Nat a little more bearable. Not to mention Madelynn is in hog heaven getting to be with Na Na and Kay Kay. She is a bit thrown off and has had a lot of accidents the past 2 days. Its been hard on her in that area of life. I am hoping things turn around pretty soon.

Class #2

I had my second cake class last night... I don't feel like I did as well on this cake as I did on the first one I made and I figured out why. Time. There is just not enough time in the class to get it just the way I want it so I kinda just had to settle with it not being my best. The instructor said that this was her first class to teach where you had to ice the cake in class rather than at home... I personally would rather ice it at home and decorate it there.. but I don't have a say so in the matter. Anyways.... Enough being rough on myself.

as you can tell... I had a lot of trouble getting the icing smooth and even.

We have been soooooo enjoying time with Nat. His last day at work was Friday and we have had him with us ever since then. We have never spent so much time together. It has been such a blessing for me. (not gonna cry) Its hard to think that he is going to leave us for a few months. Its especially going to be hard when we will have been with him for 2 weeks straight!!! But I am looking forward to the days to come.

We are slowly but surely packing up our house, and taking stuff to our storage room. Our house is pretty empty and I don't feel like we have a whole whole lot to do in order to be outta here... guess we'll see this weekend when it comes times to move out!! This weekend we have the birthday party, and we are moving... pretty sure we did birthday party and moving the same exact weekend last year. Crazy how life plays out sometimes!!

typical them.

Ice cold milk....

I really, really, REALLY like Oreo cookies with this pregnancy. I like them a lot anyways... but right now they are like heaven to me. So In order for me to eat one when I want to, I gotta share. Now lemme tell you about Payton. She will attack you (or rather attack Madelynn) for food. A lot of the times Madelynn will get her snack in a bowl at her little table... and alot of the times it ends up all over the floor and Payton has a hay day with it. She is quite an aggressive little girl as it is. She'll have Madelynn pinned down on the ground in no time at all. So needless to say, she got the cookie from Madelynn and enjoyed the heck outta it!

P.S... we may or may not have had oreo's in our Pj's soon after we woke up.

P.S.S... I am a horrible mother.