Let's End This Once and For All

Alright . . . For all you folks out there that think Peyton looks like Ryan. . . . 

Now do you believe me??? 
I'm pretty sure we are identical twins!

Peyton's First Prayer

During prayers the other night Peyton says "NO, I do it myself Mom". She then proceeded to say her first prayer all by herself. It went like this . . .

"Heavy Father, I love quance class (dance class), thank you, Amen"

Then she opened her eyes big, jumped up on the bed and said "Yay!! I do it Mom!! Hiiiii-Yah! (karate kick included)

What a funny kid! She has been cracking us up lately! She tries to tell jokes and plays tricks on us all the time. If we don't laugh she says, "Dad, that was funny, Dad"

She is driving us all nuts with potty training. She will not tell us when she needs to go and she WILL NOT go unless we tell her that Little Foot (Land before time) wants her to go. We then have to tell everyone in the Land Before Time cast (Sarah, Petri, Ducky, Spike and Petri's Mom) that Peyton has decided to go potty. As long as we do this every two hours each day, she does perfectly with no accidents.

And lastly, Peyton has started talking in her sleep. She says the funniest things during the night! The other night she sang "Wonder Pets" at the top of her lungs. I thought she had woken up cause it was so energetic, but when I checked on her she was sound asleep!

This little fireball keeps me on my toes! I love all her energy even if it does wear me out sometimes!!

Time Flies

Things have been very busy around here. Ryan has been traveling a lot for work. We miss him, but we are glad he is enjoying it! He gets to go to all these fun places and see all the cool stuff!

Peyton is growing up so fast. She is so smart and very mischevious. She says the funniest things all the time! Her favorite show is Caillou right now. She loves to dance and asks me every day to go to "quance class". She is addicted to the binkie. It's terrible. She carries around 2 of them with her all day. I am constantly trying to hide them, but it's hard to break the habit when Jackson has one in his mouth. Every time I take hers away she steals one from the baby. Oh Well! (I did take it away last year and she was fine until the baby came) No matter! She's still the cutest thing on the planet with the craziest, unmanageable hair! Love her!

I can't believe Jackson is 2 1/2 months already! The time is going by way to fast. He is getting so big and fat. He is now 12 lbs and 23 inches. I think he looks so much like Ryan, but when he is asleep he looks a lot like Peyton. I've noticed that he has a lot less hair than Peyton did, so it's a good thing he's a boy :)

Jackson is a good little baby who likes to be held and snuggle all the time! He smiles all the time now and we just can't get enough of him. Peyton has been a good big sister. She has only sat on him twice and she did try to pick him up out of his crib by his feet once, but I think she knows not to try that anymore :)

In writing this blog, I've noticed I need to be taking way more pictures! Peyton is definitely winning in the "who has more baby pictures" contest.

Jackson Everest!!

Jackson Everest Gardner

Born: January 31, 2012 @ 6:31am

7 lbs. 4 oz.

19 in.

Jackson is a sweet little soul who insists on doing everything his own way and on his own time. We wanted him to come on Jan. 27th, but he did not and instead waited until the most inconvenient time possible.

On Monday, Jan. 30th I started having contractions at about 5:30pm. Ryan came home and told me he was going to dinner with a friend, assuming I wouldn't feel up to going, but there was NO WAY I was staying home. So, we dropped the kids off at grandma's house and went to Buffalo Wild Wings. I was almost positive my water would break in the middle of dinner! My contractions were getting pretty bad and we were sitting at a tall table with bar stools so it was pretty uncomfortable, but at least being with friends was a good distraction. I don't think anyone took me seriously when I told them I might have the baby in the restaurant!

We left the restaurant at about 8:30pm and I started timing my contractions on the way home. They were now 4-5 minutes apart and getting stronger, but I couldn't decide if we should go to the hospital or not so we just picked up P. Nut and went home. I got P's jammies on and by then I decided we should leave. It was about 10:00pm. So we took P. back over to grandma's house and away we went!

Once we got to the hospital and they put me on the monitors I wimped out. I swear contractions are SO MUCH WORSE when you are stuck in that bed and can't move around. But I had to be on the monitor for an hour so they could decide if I was truly in labor and they could admit me. I got my epidural at 1:00am only dilated to a 2. With Peyton I didn't dilate for 12 hours and then finally got my epidural and dilated to a 10 in less than an hour so I thought this one might be the same. But it wasn't. My poor mom and Ryan!! After I got the epidural my labor stopped, which meant Pitocin, which meant throwing up, which led to more medicine to stop throwing up, and then finally ready to push at 6:00am. It was a long night, especially for Ryan and my mom :( Sorry!!! But they both got a lot of work done while they waited :)

Once it was time to push, Jackson decided to be inconvenient once again. He wanted to come out face up. So the doctor had to turn him, then he slipped and went back in and we had to turn him again. Finally he gave in at 6:31am and we got to meet our sweet little boy!

I relinquished all naming rights to my awesome husband and I think he did a great job! Jackson Everest. My dad likes to believe that we named him after his favorite war general Stonewall Jackson and I let him. And the middle name is a compromise between Everett and Everest. Everett is my dad and Grandpa's middle name, but Ry doesn't like it so I think Everest is close enough~and I love it!

We love this little guy so much! Peyton has to hold him at least 10 times a day! Oh, and let's face it... We all do!! I finally got a little snuggler and we are all very excited about that!

Going Home

2 weeks old

8 lbs. 3 oz.

20 in.

Growing so fast!!

My first baseball hat :)

Catching up from the Holidays...

Sweetest Little P. Nut!

The most snow we've had all year! So weird!

If this isn't the cutest Mall Santa picture ever taken, I don't know what could be more perfect!

I didn't get very many good pictures of Christmas this year, but we did have lots of fun!

Human Christmas Tree Decorating!

Helping decorate the tree. Notice: Peyton's correct use of a stocking :) ("A Boot!" she says)

Snoozing under the christmas tree!

Waiting on the stairs to go see what Santa brought!

Quiet Thanksgiving

We had a quiet Thanksgiving this year. All the family headed up to Canada for Papa Rice's funeral, but unfortunately we couldn't go. We were really sad about everything, but we know he is in a much better place now, so I am happy for him.

Ryan, Peyton and I went to Grandma Penny's friend Nancy Taylors for dinner. It was weird not being around lots of family, but we were grateful to be able to enjoy a good home cooked meal. Peyton loved playing with all the kids and I was just glad I didn't have to cook :)

Ha! This is just a cute picture of Sweet P. with hair. Even if it is a little green. Everyone in her dance class has TONS of hair. But we love our little baldy no matter what!! The doctor did give us some different medicines to try and see if it will fill in all her little bald spots on her head so cross your fingers it works! I just hate it when the doctor looks at you and says, "hmmm, I've never seen this before." It's really comforting :) But at least its just hair and not something worse right!!

And here I am at 28 weeks (above) and then POW! 30 weeks comes (below) and I blow up like a balloon!! I literally could see my stomach growing by the hour. One day I was wearing my peacoat and it fit just fine in the morning. Come afternoon it was starting to feel a little snug and then that night WHAMO! I could barely button it and the buttons were pulling in every direction! It was SO WEIRD!

Well, we are all doing GREAT! Peyton is very excited for her baby brother. We finally went and bought some boy things and Peyton has been enjoying putting all his clothes on her little baby doll.

I have to admit I'm not in "boy mode" yet though. It took me hours of shopping just to find a couple outfits I liked. I just sat there staring at everything thinking, "I really don't like boy clothes." And don't get me started on names. I can't think of ANYTHING! This poor kid might end up with a girls name if I don't get some help here soon :) Don't get me wrong. I am SUPER EXCITED to have a crazy little boy in the house. I've just been in girl mode for so long!

So 8 more weeks!!

Here's to hoping the Holidays make time fly by!

Halloween and such . . .

Life hasn't been too eventful lately. Ryan keeps telling me I need a new hobby because I am constantly saying I am bored. I have a huge long list of things I could/should do that I am procrastinating, but I want to do something fun! I'm bored of cooking, cleaning, preparing for a new baby and working!

Peyton had a fabulous Halloween. She was so sad that it was over. For dance class she dressed up like a ghost and her teacher had a special "glow in the dark" dance day. I was nervous Peyton would be scared, but she LOVED it!

Then, for Halloween she dressed up as "Minnie Mouse" she loves "mimi" so much and was VERY excited to say the least. For some reason she was deathly afraid of the white gloves though :( After 45 minutes of convincing I finally got her to put them on for 2 minutes while Grandpa Gardner caught a picture.

Peyton was SO much fun trick-or-treating. After every house she would yell, "RUN! Mom RUN!" and we would run as fast as we could to the next house. Ha! I was done after about 5 houses and then I was glad that Ryan was there to walk while I rode along in the car with my friends Liz and Anne. What can I say, there are lots of hills around here and I'm fat and pregnant :)

Peyton was very brave and even went in a haunted spook alley. She trick-or-treated for a whole hour, running the whole time! Ry had to carry her bag cause it got too heavy for her! Ha! Not to mention, we were in the best neighborhood! She got 9 king size candy bars and a Dr. Pepper! Dad was very excited :) I was very proud of my polite little princess too. She kindly made sure to say "trick-or-treat" at each house and left with a big (yelling) "Thank You!"

For breakfast we had "how-ween punkin pancakes"

Peyton thought it was very cool and was especially grateful for the chocolate chips!

And for all the curious ones, here is a picture of me at 25 weeks. I'm a lot smaller than I was with Peyton. I think because he is so low! I feel like he's going to fall out already and I'm only 28 weeks now.

This time around has been 100 times easier. With Peyton I was really sick and throwing up the whole entire time. This time I feel great! I have gotten pretty sick about 6 times, which is a piece of cake compared to last time. I feel like time has stopped though and this baby will never come. I am hoping with the holidays coming, time will start to go by faster. It usually does, right?

Here is a video of Peyton telling Santa what she wants for Christmas. Somehow she knows all about the holiday and Santa and presents. I have no idea how cause we never talk about it! But the other day she woke up and out of the blue told me "Mom! Santa, coming! Kiss-mas!

Su-pise!?! . .(thinking) . . . Ya!"