The Wait is Over!

Bella (Meaning: Beautiful)

So our little bundle of joy has arrived! This pregnancy has had it's ups and downs like all of them, but since I've never actually gone to my due date this pregnancy felt like it was never going to end when I was 3 days over my d-date and no baby. (I know that's nothing compared to most of you who have gone as far as 2 weeks over!) Bella arrived Wed. morning bright and early at 5:46 a.m. I started having labor pains around midnight on Tuesday and decided at 1:30 am that these contractions were the real thing and that we needed to get to the hospital. So, I woke up Jesse from a deep sleep, got his mom Karen to come over and stay with the kids and off we were. Things progressed rather quickly as soon as we got into the labor room. I felt like Jesse and I were working as a team through the contractions because he was there through each one pushing on a certain spot on my back or rubbing it to help with the pressure and pain of labor and I really appreciated him for that. Anyhow, this story will be short because the labor was short! :) I'm so thankful for that and am thankful that Bella came out healthy and free from any problems that could've occured. When she arrived I can't explain the relief and pure happiness I felt having her born! She was 7 pounds 4 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long. My smallest baby. She's just a beautiful little girl and so far she is a very content little baby who has a nice soft cry.

It's always neat to see the kids reaction when they see a newborn brother/sister for the first time. Bryson and Cameron were so intrigued by her umbilical cord and her tiny hands and toes. They looked proud when they held her in their arms. While Cameron was holding her today I caught him singing twinkle little star to her which just melted my heart. Claire just adores her as well. She's always pointing to Bella and says, "be-bee sizzter..mine!" She's always bringing me blankets because she insists that her "sizzter" is cold. She's so cute with her. So, we're all very excited about Bella coming into our lives and want to thank everyone for their prayers!

Child's Play

This week has been one rainy week. I'm not complaining though because it's been a nice relief from the heat. I've loved every minute of it and so has my lawn. :) From time to time the kids would go outside with the umbrella and find frogs in the yard, but when the rain stopped I decided that the kids needed to go splash in some puddles since we don't have that luxery very often. They had a great time and didn't want to go inside, but when the sun came out for awhile it started getting very hot and humid and I couldn't sit out there anymore! Thursday morning it was raining again and I woke up to the sound of a leak in our bedroom roof and so poor Jesse had to get out of bed, climb up on the roof while it was pouring cats and dogs and fix a few trouble spots. I was watching him under an umbrella scared to death that he was going to slip and fall off the roof, but luckily that didn't happen and the leak was fixed! A new roof is in order. By the way, no baby yet....

Reunited!

Hope everyone had a patriotic and happy 4th of July. Every year we make the trek to Artesia and spend the holiday with my side of the family and enjoy barbecuing and catching up with my sisters while the cousins and brother-n-laws hang out. There's always a GREAT fireworks display there and we sit very close to where the fireworks take off and so it's always exciting.

This year right before the fireworks my family and I attended my 10 year high school reunion picnic. I've always wondered what it would be like to attend my reunion. What I would say to childhood friends that I've lost touch with or have a history with. But, surprisingly you just pick up right were you left off! I of course was big and pregnant which I thought might happen when I started having kids every two years, but that's o.k. It was an excuse to not have to worry about being fit and skinny. :) Plus, it was a nice ice breaker. I was proud of my family and felt like I had accomplished something special. In school I hung out with 3 other girls and we called ourselves J.A.C.K because our first names were Joyce, Amy, Cami and Kristy. I know, we're silly, but we had so much fun together! Anyways, it was wonderful seeing them. When we saw each other we just hugged and laughed at how exciting it was seeing each other. The next night we had a nice adults only steak dinner at the Country Club with some of our favorite teachers who gave great and humorous speeches.

I unfortunately forgot my memory card to my bran new camera that Jesse bought me for my b-day so I was so bummed that I couldn't capture the moment. We stayed at my sister Jeanine's house and my other sister June and her boys came down and we stayed up so late talking and I just couldn't get comfortable being so pregnant. I didn't get much sleep (which you can probably tell by the picture that I look exhausted). It was worth it though. Great weekend!