Welcome Home "WEEDO BEBE OWEN"

After Owen was born and everything with both he and I looked good, my doctor told me that if I wanted to I could go home the next day. I was happy with this news, I am not a big fan of staying in the hospital, plus I have never been away from my kids over night- so I just really wanted to be home.

I wasn't sure of how Collin would react to Owen. I knew he loved babies- but I didn't know if he would love a little baby who never went home! Plus up until I had Owen, Collin was convinced that HE was the one having the baby- not me- so who really knew what was going on in his cute little head.

The welcome home- of course brought tears to my eyes (doesn't take much these days). The kids were SO excited- and it was just nice to be home. (plus my mom made the best dinner- I am NOT a fan of hospital food- so I was so ready for her cooking)

3 weeks later, and the scene in this picture hasn't changed. The kids are ALWAYS wanting to be right where Owen can see them.

From the beginning, we had to teach Collin that he had to touch "softly"(he had a lot of love to share)-especially when he wanted to touch his head. This picture made us laugh because it looks like Collin is giving Owen a blessing

We were lucky enough to have not only my mom here with us, but also Steph, and for a couple of days my brother Cameron came too.(thanks to Dad and Cassie for holding down things at home) It was so great to have them around. Being away from family has taught me to appreciate them even more- I come from an amazing family.

My mom and Steph are seriously two of my best friends. I love to be with them and just be able to talk and laugh. We have such a good time together. I am so grateful for the time they spent here and for all that they did to help. My mom is an incredible person, someone who I look up to and I feel so blessed to have her as my mom. Literally, as each day passes, I get further and further in debt to her. She does so much for me and for my family.

We couldn't have done it without you!- thank you!

*Explanation for the title- This is what Collin calls Owen- it's always either "Weedo Bebe Owen" or just "Bebe Owen"- never just Owen

Christmas....finally

This Christmas was different--good but different. It was strange not to be in Utah with our family- but it was also really nice to just be home together and not worry about travel etc.

I also think that having Steph with us really helped. (I mentioned before that my parents flew her out early- because it looked like Owen wanted to come early.)

Here are some highlights and pics.....

Christmas Eve

-Yummy Roast dinner

-decorating gingerbread houses- it was suppose to be boys against girls- but the both kids ended up changing teams several times

-frosting cookies for Santa

-putting out the key for Santa

-talking about the first Christmas and the importance of always remembering our Savior

Christmas Day

-Watching the kids enjoying their presents

-relaxing

-talking with our families

-Christmas dinner with friends

Christmas Eve nap with Aunt Steph

The completely AWESOME houses


Thanks Papa and Gra for the Ramona book on CD!

(and for the cute jammies)


Thanks Papa and Nama for the Buzz jammies and

Skippy John Jones book on CD!

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for the fishing poles!

Can't wait to go fishing with Grandpa in April!

Miggie Do

I have a friend- Jena- she is actually a member of our Missouri family. She has an amazing mind- and creativity that continually amazes me. It seems like there is nothing this girl can't do. Often times- to make myself feel better- I'll tell myself that "Jena just has been given more hours in a day than the rest of us"- and that's how she does all that she does. She's a master knitter- (she and her mom are AMAZING) she is an incredible artist and she just has a way of doing things that blow me away.
With much "prodding" from those who have seen what she can do-I am so excited to say that she has now opened an etsy shoppe!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/miggiedo

Just to give you a heads up- she is offering giveaways on her blog. Each week she is adding something new to her shoppe- along with doing a giveaway of that new item!

http://www.theflanfam.blogspot.com/

I am so happy for her and her new shoppe and I have no doubt that she will be successful!

See for yourself!

Owen Robert Taylor

He is here!!! Owen Robert (Robert was my dad's name) was born yesterday at 3:38 pm weighing 8 lb. and is 20 in. (our littlest baby so far) with a small amount of LIGHT hair! Both Collin and Samantha started out with dark hair and slowly faded to their color now. It looks like Owen is starting out with the same light color- so time will tell if he will get even lighter?! (He has the same little cowlick(sp?) up front like Collin- which is one of my favorite things. It's not super noticeable right now because his hair is thinner towards his hairline.)

I checked in at 6 am- I was already contracting-so they let me go for awhile before they gave me anything to help things along. Just like with Samantha's delivery- they figured I would go pretty fast- and again just like Samantha's delivery it was a long day (only because we were expecting a quick delivery) Both Owen and Samantha were posterior- which makes it harder for them to make it out smoothly. By the time it was pushing time- my epidural was almost completely worn off. I felt so much more than ever before- and for that reason- I am BEYOND impressed with those who CHOOSE to go natural- atleast I didn't have to feel the contractions leading up to delivery! Owen was having a hard time coming out- and every time I pushed, his heart rate would go down, so my doctor decided to use the vacuum and just get him out. That did the trick!

As Mike was over with the nurse checking things out- he called over to me "Well he has 10 toes and 11 fingers" I laughed and said "funny." But he wasn't kidding- Owen has a sixth finger on his right hand. On his thumb he has a mini thumb (fingernail and all) coming out the side.-Polydactactyly can part of a syndrome-but not necessarily, it could just be a random thing. Our pediatrician checked him out and she said that Owens little addition is just one of those things that can happen- and which actually happens quite a bit. We will be referred to a orthopedic hand surgeon who will most likely take care of it within the next couple months. I figure that this is something that little boys will think is cool and he'll brag about it to his friends- and if nothing else- he'll always have something cool to say for the game 2 truths and a lie!

I get to go home today (a little early)- the doctors gave me the option- and I jumped at it. I'm not too big on being in the hospital, plus I really miss my 2 other scraggle muffins. It will be nice to have my mom and sister around to help out and momentarily fix my homesickness that I have, especially have during any emotional time. I am so grateful for the love and support of our family and friends during such a neat time.

I will post more pictures later- as well as our Christmas ones......

Come on little guy!

Really I have no reason to be complaining right now. My induction has been set for awhile now- Dec. 29th. But a week ago Friday I lost my mucus plug (sorry I know that is such a gross thing to write about) and anyone that I talked to - a couple nurses- and my doctor- all said "Oh for sure you won't make it to your induction date- you'll be lucky to make it past Christmas" At first I was super stressed- I was worried about not being home with the kids Christmas Eve and morning etc. plus who would take the kids? All my friends offered several times- as well as some kind members of our ward- but even still I was stressed- it was the holidays. So I began to prepare and turned to prayer to ask Heavenly Father to help it so that baby could wait to come AFTER Christmas- even later on that day- I just wanted to make it to Christmas morning. Being the supportive,selfless parents they have always been- they paid the extra amount to fly out Steph to help just in case he came before Christmas. Steph got in late on the 23rd and has been with us ever since. It has eased so much concern having her here- but I feel horrible because it seems like she came out for nothing.-(although I have LOVED having some family here since we couldn't' go home for Christmas)
Now it's the 27th and no sign that sweet baby boy is going to come out unless he is forced out on Tuesday! I don't know why I am so disappointed that he isn't here yet-for heavens sake he really isn't even due until the 5th of January! I guess it's because I finally prepared myself mentally for the earlier delivery- and now nothing has happened! Poor kid is probably so confused on what he is supposed to do!
I would however feel completely ungrateful if I didn't express how grateful I am for my prayers being answered- I did get to be home with our kids Christmas morning- and that was something so important to me.
Either way- Tuesday we will finally get to meet the little guy! (hopefully "little"- ultrasound measured him at 7 lbs. 3 weeks ago- luckily ultrasounds can be off a little- and fingers crossed that it doesn't turn out like my sis-in-law whose ultrasound measured 8 lbs and her girl was 0ver 10 1/2 lbs!) We'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Samantha!

It was quite the weekend for Samantha. Her actual birthday was on Thursday. Luckily Mike was on call the day/night before- so he was home at 9 am - this made it so that Samantha didn't have to wait all day to open her presents. We just spent the day together as a family,went to Target to spend the gift card my grandparents sent her and then went out to eat that night to celebrate.

She had wanted an American Girl doll- so needless to say- as the proof is in the picture- she was thrilled and totally surprised to unwrap and find her Julie doll

I wish it wasn't so fuzzy because this is just so Samantha- she has such an enthusiasm for EVERYTHING in life- and is so grateful for everything. - I also love how excited Collin is too :)

She was a lucky little girl with so many presents from Grandparents and aunts and uncles!- all things to go with her new doll.

The next day was our ward Christmas party- the kids were excited because this was their chance to see Santa. I don't have the pictures yet- I completely forgot the camera- luckily my friend had hers- so I just need to get them from her.

Saturday was the BIG birthday party. Samantha decided that she wanted to have a Fancy Nancy tea party. So we invited a few of her friends over.

To start off the party- of course if we are going to have a fancy tea party we had work to do! We needed to get more fancy ( the girls either came in their favorite dress up dress or favorite nice dress) we started off by decorating crowns......

We then moved onto other important accessory- bracelets and necklaces.....


After we were all "fancied" up, we were ready for the tea party! We had crown shaped peanut butter sandwiches, pineapple and apples (which had toothpicks- because toothpicks- especially frilly toothpicks- makes things fancier- according to Nancy-although we did skip the frilly part of the toothpicks-) carrots (no way to dress those up, atleast I couldn't come up with an idea) and then bright pink punch! Of course they girls drank and ate with the pinkies up- and "dabbed" their mouths with napkins- ladies don't "wipe" they dab.

And then the cake!

Overall the party was a success! Samantha has been so lucky to make friends with such cute little girls who get along so well.

I'd say the only downer to the day-- was little Collin. He had such a hard time "sharing his Samba" he loves and adores his big sister and he didn't like having her attention on others. It was sweet but heartbreaking thing to watch. He did participated in decorating the crowns- but he had a visor instead- much more manly. The rest of the time Mike tried to distract him in the toy room watching Tom and Jerry. He did however really enjoy the cake- or maybe the frosting ....

Yuck.

It was a fun filled weekend- Mike and I learned/thought about a couple things after this birthday bash......

Me-

1-I was reminded of what an amazing mother I have- one who not only threw awesome parties but she also made AMAZING cakes.- me I order mine- what can I say, I'm a wuss.

2-I am going to follow my mothers example and do friend parties ever other year. This one wore me out!
Mike-

1- He is grateful that we are having another little boy.

Before and After

I have kind of ignoring our blog lately. With the baby coming in 3 short weeks, Samantha's birthday and birthday party, making baby stuff and doing Christmas stuff- it's honestly the last thing I want to do.

But seeing that I woke up at 5 this morning for no real reason- oh wait- it was to go to the bathroom for the 100th time- and couldn't go back to sleep- I figured I'd finally post about our Thanksgiving.

We had a great time- we went and stayed with our school family(minus the Perry's- I second Jena- it wasn't the same without you guys) - the Flanagan's- who live just 3 hours away- in Michigan. This was the first time we had seen them since the stupid tornado back in May. Our life and time in Kirksville almost seems unreal and so far away- so it was great to be with them again.

I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving day- I left that to the pro and told her to send me some(no pressure Jena). But I do have some pictures of the day before and the day after- hence the title of the post.

The day before while I was baking my dishes for the next day- I found a project to keep the kids entertained (for atleast 10min.) They had a great time- and funny enough Collin seemed to get more into it than Samantha!

Samantha got a little over zealous with her toothpicks and lost interest before she finished

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the Henry Ford Museum. It was great- although Mike and Brian plan on going back when they can read all the signs and look at things longer than 2 seconds. (I admit I am SO not a sign reader when it comes to museums and monuments)

They had a Lego exhibit which was pretty cool.

Thanks again, Flanagans for a fabulous holiday- we had a great time-

Now it's your turn!