Sitting Poolside :)

Living it up in a 1 foot deep pool  :)  I was chillin' poolside soakin' up the sun!  This was also Bella's first experience actually holding a popsicle and eating it herself, it was awesome!  Yeah, I know, she is 19 months old and this is the first time I allowed her to do it, I just hate sticky and messes!

Baby Grayson just being cute.

Bella's second experience holding Grayson.  We were THRILLED that she actually wanted to, up to now we've just figured she didn't like him!  She even tried kissing him which is also amazing because she just learned how to kiss, she's always taken kisses, not given them.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We just love our little Grayson!  He is such a blessing in our lives and we feel so blessed to have this sweet spirit in our home!  I love newborn babies, they really are little angels sent from heaven.

Thank you to Grandma Stockdale for coming and taking care of us for nearly two weeks!  What a major adjustment to go from one baby to two!  It was such a blessing to have the extra help so that I could spend more one on one time with both Grayson and Bella.  Bella has been quite the handful since Grayson's arrival, partly due to teething and partly due to her whole world being changed.  She is coming around though.  We've also had some not so good things go on with Grayson while Grandma was here so it was SUPER great to have her to lean on when we were in a jam!  Thank you Grandma Stockdale, we will never EVER forget your love and generosity!!

Baby Grayson

Here is our sweet Grayson. I was all worried about being a mommy to a boy, but so far, he is just wonderful and I feel SO ABSOLUTELY blessed to have to wonderful babies!! Well, I guess Bella isn't a baby anymore, she is a toddler, but still she is SO much fun. I forgot (not that it has been that long) how much I love little newborns! I used to be scared of them until we were blessed with Bella but now I love 'em!

Dave has been absolutely great in taking care of all of us! Working so hard and getting a lot less sleep than me. He is a great daddy and it is so cute to see him with his children.

Bella has been doing well with him. She recognizes him as a baby and goes up to him and points and says "baby". But we have to tell her to be soft as she wants to pat him a little too hard. Bella just does her own thing, playing and what not. She's never been a huge on getting a lot of attention. She does love having people over and has been in heaven playing with her cousins!

If you cannot tell, I am one happy mamma. I absolutely adore my baby girl (who will always be my baby girl whether she likes it or not) and I cannot believe I have been so blessed with such a sweet baby boy.

Introducing . . .

Grayson Lee Stockdale! Born 6/1/2010, just 29 days early, no big deal, right?! He was 7 lbs 0.5 oz. He is doing fantastic! I feel like I've been hit by a bus, but I am sure that will pass :) Pictures to follow shortly!

Picnic!

My eldest brother Wayne and his family were able to come down to Eugene from Seattle for a visit last weekend! It was WAY great to see them and to meet our new niece Neela :) (pictured above). My sister Debra was able to come down with most of her chilren as well, it was a mini-family reunion! I LOVE GETTING TOGETHER WITH MY FAMILY. We were just missing Greg and Kirk and their families :(

Bella loved playing with all her cousins and as you can see in a moment, they really tuckered her out!

Wayne is a photographer and wanted to take a picture of his HUGELY pregnant sister, so here I am at 35 weeks.

Dad got tired from all the grandkids too! LOL.

Ah, and this was Bella's meltdown . . . she was overly tired and hungry (but wouldn't eat). Dave sat with her in the car while they watched a movie and he was able to get her to eat and she could chill out. She was able to come back and play for another hour or two after but then we put her down for a nap at around 5:30 and she was down for the night! Those cousins are hard to keep up with! Dave was/is super great! He let me play a lot with my family and took care of Bella pretty much all weekend! What a great hubby and daddy!!

Out with the old

This is just a cute picture of Bella munchin on an apple on our drive home from one of her cousin's baptisms. She's putting all those teeth to good work!

This was a child's chair my aunt had FOREVER as you can tell. The fabric on it was even plastic fabric type thing, it was fugly but super resilient. I decided I'd like to reupholster the thing but didn't know how. That is when our friends the Johnstons totally stepped up. It took us a little while to have our schedules align properly but we finally did it!

Kristan and I were supposed to be the ones actually doing it and Dan was supposed to show us how (as he is pretty much the expert) but the boys took over completely, which was fine as you can see below, they did a WONDERFUL job! The boys even had to go to JoAnn's Fabric store together to get some tacs for it, I am sure they looked super cute going together ;) We love the new chair and so does Bella!


Thank you to the Johnstons for helping us out and having a good time doing it!

Earning keep

Dave, Bella, Bono and I went for a walk with some friends today. We walked along the bike path behind our home to a small bridge over a creek. Dave was in charge of watching Bella and I had Bono. Bella went to the railing of the bridge and was just looking, but I had warned my husband that she would throw things over the edge and into the water. He didn't seem worried. After another minute I heard Dave say "oh no". Bella had thrown her sippy cup over the edge. Everyone just looked down in shock, all I could say was, "told you so". You would've thought then Dave would grab whatever else she had available to her to throw, but nope and of course next went over her binki and blankie. Yikes. Yikes. And I must emphasize that the sippy cup that went into the dirty, mucky water was her only one she would drink out of. And the blankie that went in was her most favorite. I thought all was lost and I, of course, was extremely upset.

That was when Dave and our friend Dan went down to the waters edge with Bono. Bono had just been groomed the day before so he was wonderfully clean and trimmed. Now, I also need to remind everyone that I have been on the verge, SEVERAL times, of getting rid of Bono, even going to the length of putting him on craigslist. Bono also does not understand the concept of fetch. Well, sometimes he does, but mostly he will chase after whatever you threw, get to it, look at it and look at you and then just leave it there - because he is that smart. But today, today he was my hero and he saved Dave's hide!

Dave took Bono off his leash and told him to "go get it". I thought there was NO way he would understand and was just going to go play so I started walking back to the house with Bella, Carina and Juliet. I was done and angry. All of a sudden I was hearing "good boy" several times and I looked over the edge and Bono had the handle of the sippy cup in his mouth and was swimming toward the shore. Next was the blankie, he went after it, but he hit it with his paw and it went sinking into the mirky water and we couldn't see it from above thus lost forever. (Bono is not a good swimming, a bit bottom heavy) Last was the binki, which is small and was surrounded with weeds, I didn't think there was a chance that he would understand to get it or even be able to find it. Not only did he find it, he retrieved it as well. It was amazing!! I had no idea he was even capable of such heroics!

We came home and of course Dave gave him a bath (that mirky, creek/swampy water is really stinky) and we gave him some treats and extra love for his good behavior. He is simply amazing and somewhat redeemed a special place in my heart. I am sure he will still make me upset with his non-perfect behavior, but I know he is capable of good things too.

Easter matches and pregnancy woes

My lovely sister, Debra, made Bella and I matchy skirts for Easter! Aren't they cute?! We just thought it would be fun to dress up together and Bella is like my personal live doll anyway. But getting a good picture of her is nearly impossible, she is always on the move! It was even more fun when Dave came down the stairs ready for church wearing his pink tie!! Too bad we couldn't get a family photo taken!

And who knew a stupid cold could put you into false labor, twice! Bella and I have been fighting colds since Tuesday. Tuesday evening I was having braxton hicks contractions but they were extremely painful and were occuring every 4-5 minutes and lasting about 1 minute each and this went on for about 4 hours. The same thing happened on Thursday evening. For those of you who don't know, you call the doctor when you have contractions like that - it usually means you are in labor and a baby is coming. So I went into the Dr. on Friday and thank goodness the contractions hadn't done anything as far as getting me ready for labor, so baby boy is safe and sound. The Dr. explained to me that when a pregnant woman is sick the white blood cells not only attack the virus but also may try to get the baby out because the vessel (my body) isn't a super healthy place for a baby which then causes these contractions that I've been experiencing. So pretty much I get to feel lots of fun pain for nothing (not that I want something to happen as far as birth is concerned, but when you are in pain you kind of want something to show for it, like a broken leg or something! lol). Bella and I are coming out of the sickies now, which is great so hopefully these kind of contractions will stop.

Dancing Bella

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-E_W9A_ajs

This is Bella dancing. We think it is super adorable as she just learned how to dance and she says the word dance too . . . well, her way of saying it. So listen closely, you can hear her say it too. She loves the movie Madagascar and the "Move It" song in it.

We sure do love this little girl!!

Sunshine

She is our absolute sunshine! Incidentally we had a sunny day and met Daddy at the park for lunch. Bella had a fun time on the swing, the slide and just walking around talking to everyone. She is SUCH a social butterfly. I know she is really trying to say something important, I need an interpreter.

Also, if you haven't already heard we are having a baby boy! We are excited to get him and we are excited for Bella to have a little brother :)