Merry Christmas!

Monkeys in Diapers

Back in September of 2007, I came upon this scene in our bedroom:

Maryn has never played with baby dolls. It's been stuffed animals from day one, no matter how hard I've tried. Which is why we end up with tiny little monkeys wearing pullups. Though Ailee will occasionally pick up a baby doll here and there, it seems that she is following right along in Maryn's footsteps. This is the scene we came upon the other night:

Poor little thing. At least he is getting some love:

And he seems happy.

Lastly, I have one more picture. Deciding on a nickname for our kids is almost as important as deciding on a name. This one was a toughy. I think we've decided that "Monkey" is the nickname for Cora. I took some pictures of the girls a few weeks ago for our Christmas cards. There were lots of tears, bribery, and just a few good ones. This one was one of my favorites of a Monkey in a diaper:

My 200th Post: Christmas Presence

So, this is my 200th post. Big day, huh? I thought about doing something with the number 200. Buuuuuuut, it's late. I'm tired. Maybe I'll celebrate 300. We'll see.

Last week, we set up our Christmas tree. Putting the lights on is a pretty terrible job, but I decided to suck it up and put them on one afternoon. About halfway through, I realized Ailee was singing a sweet little version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and I looked down and saw this:

Don't you just miss how magical Christmas was as a kid?

A Thanksgiving Duet

So, I have to preface this video a little bit. Growing up, we had a book of piano duets. Now, my mom taught us all how to play the piano to some extent or another. Since we've all grown up (some of us more than others....) and moved around, we try to all get together once or twice a year at my parent's house, and for whatever reason, this book seems to make an appearence at some point.

This year, for Thanksgiving, everybody went to my parent's house.

Everybody, that is, except for me.

Boo.

So, to brighten my spirits, my brother, Ryan, and my sister, Jill, called me on Thanksgiving, and performed the following duet for me, and I promised them, that if they recorded it, I would put it here, on my blog.

So, for your viewing pleasure, I give you.....

[Drum Roll]

.....Ryan and Jill.

If anyone is interesting in working up a record deal for them, please leave a comment on my blog, and I will let them know.

Cora! Cora! Cora!

I feel a bit like life has been upside down lately. I guess that's just how it is when you have a newborn, right? Poor Cora may end up not having documentation of her life. Ah, the joys of being the 3rd!
My doctor called the day before I was set to be induced, and asked me if I could go into the hospital at some crazy hour of the night to get started on the ptosin drip. At about 3 in the morning, I drove myself over to the hospital and checked in, so that Kade could take care of the girls come morning. On the door of my room, they had a dry erase board with the nurses info on it. My nurse came in an pointed to the middle section and asked me, on a scale of 1-10, what my pain goal was. Naturally, I selected a pain goal of 0....or no pain.

When Kade showed up (later, and with a decent night's sleep....lucky), I was explaining to him about the pain goal options. We weren't sure who in their right mind would actually select a 10, but we thought we would be funny and do this:

I especially liked that I wanted it to, "hurt so good!"

After a successful delivery, Kade left to fetch the girls from the sitters, and my mom from the airport. It was fun to watch Maryn and Ailee with their new sister. Maryn was pretty infatuated (and still is) with her.

Me, my Mom, and Cora--three generations of babes:

Ailee thought Cora was pretty great for about 10 minutes. She got lots of kisses and "she's so little!"s.

The following day, we just had an angry 2-year-old teenager, that just wanted to sit in the chair and check out the apps on Kade's Iphone. Me with with a sweet little angel in my arms. Sans makeup. Luckily I had that pretty XXXXXXXXXXL hospital gown to offset the lack of femininity.

I was pretty glad to get out of that horrible hospital bed (seriously, can they make them any more uncomfortable??) and go home. It's always a bit of a bizarro feeling to bring a new little baby home for me. For the first little while I have to constantly remind myself that I have another kid. And pray that I don't leave her somewhere.

It was nice to have my mom here with me to make that transition. And to have an extra set of hands to hold a baby and care for the other girls.

Cora, at 8 days old. (sorry about the yellowish picture)
10 days

My next goal is to get some decent pictures of the girls all together so that we can get Christmas cards out. All in due time....