Announcing...

One of those days

Today I broke a lot of things. It was just one of those days, I guess.
Broken item #1: To start off, I got the girls all buckled in and ready to go on my morning walk in my fabulous new BOB jogging stroller (love it) and as soon as I started pushing, I noticed that the front tire seemd a little flat. I checked it out and noticed that there were a bunch of little stickers in the tire (you know, those little sharp thingy's that fall of a bush or tree). So, being the brilliant person that I am, I decided to start my walk off with a trip to the gas station to fill the tire up with air. I got there, put my quarters in, and filled the tire up with as much air as possible thinking that there were still little holes in the tire and that the air would escape at a slow rate on my walk home. About 2 seconds after I put the cap back on, the whole tire exploded!! It sounded like a ballon popping times 20-which was scary because my 2 babies were in the stroller and I thought little pieces of tire were going to hit them like shrapnel! They were ok, my nerves were shot, and we walked all the way home doing a "wheelie" because I had no front tire...at all!

Broken item #2: After having a nice dinner out as a family, I decided I would leave Steven home with the girls while I "quickly" dropped off a plate of cookies to my friend who is celebrating her birthday today. Well, let's just say that I shouldn't have done it so "quickly" because as I was backing out of the garage (in Steven's car, not mine) I got a little too close to the garage door and hit his rearview mirror, bent it back completely, and scratched it up nice and good.

Broken item #3: Upon returning home and notifying Steve of his broken mirror, we took the girls upstairs to give them baths and put them to bed. Steve got Mackenna in the bath first so I was going to wait until he was done so I could bathe Karlee. Well, Karlee got a little fussy because it was past her bedtime, so I decided that I would just bathe her in the sink instead of waiting for Mackenna to get out of the bathtub (don't know why I didn't think to use one of the other 2 baths upstairs). I pulled up the lever to plug the sink so I could fill it with water, but it wasn't holding the water very good, so I asked Steve what to do and he just says to pull the lever up all the way. So I reach for it, pull it up, and POP! Out comes the entire lever from the sink!

At that point, I just had to lay on the floor and laugh...luckily both Mackenna and Steve started to laugh with me and made me feel a lot better about my crazy day. In a matter of 12 hours, I broke 3 pretty expensive items (All night, Steve has been saying "you broke your stroller, my car, and the house). A little exaggeration there, but somewhat true. Glad tomorrow's Saturday and we can spend the entire day fixing the things I broke!

p.s. I do have a couple things to note that I'm very proud of: Karlee slept for 8 uninterrupted hours last night! For the past 2 weeks, she has been doing 8pm-2am(nurse for 30 mins) then 2:30am-6:30am, but last night she slept from 8pm-4am (and I had to wake her up to nurse for 15 mins) then back down until 6:30am. Also, Mackenna is doing very good at her dance class and has not hit or pushed anyone for 3 weeks straight! Big accomplishments around the Paul household!!

Halloween 2009

This year, my niece Hailey picked out costumes for all of the kids-she pretty much just woke up one morning and told my sister what she wanted everyone to be. It took the work out of coming up with costumes for me, so I went along with it! We got the kids' pictures taken in their costumes a couple days before Halloween.
Mackenna: Snow White
Karlee: Sleepy (one of the seven dwarfs)
Hailey: Cinderella (or "Ciner-bella" as Mackenna would say)
Colton: Gus Gus (the little mouse from Cinderella)

Unfortunately, we booked the picture appt. at Karlee's feeding time, so she wasn't too thrilled. Also, I know she looks like a boy with blue and brown on, but those are the colors that Sleepy wears in the movie!

For our ward Halloween party, Mackenna was Tinkerbell and Karlee was a pumpkin-(poor little thing wasn't a fan of dressing up this year, can you tell)?Halloween morning-making pancakes with Dad:
Karlee in her Halloween day outfit with Grandma Jane (Steven's grandma):
My in-laws throw the most amazing Halloween party every year, so my sister and her family and my parents and grandparents all came. My mom (the witch in the middle) decided to dress up this year and scare these poor little girls to death! She had to bribe them with suckers to even come near her after they both ran away screaming and crying when she first showed up:

My Grandpa Smith and Karlee-they sat like that for a good half hour, so precious:

My Grandma Smith with Karlee and Grandpa Smith holding my nephew Colton:

Grandma Smith and Karlee:

My little Snow White...notice any difference in the dress she's wearing in this picture and the dress from the professional pictures above? Yeah, an hour beforet we left to go to the party, I looked through the bag with the girls' costumes and realized that the snow white dress was not in there. We searched forever, even called the store to see if they had found it, but had no luck. I came to the conclusion that I had dropped it somewhere in the parking lot after the photo shoot. Luckily, my friend Jolisa has 2 little girls and had a Snow White dress that fit Mackenna perfectly (and she never knew the difference).

Mackenna with Aunt Ashley getting ready to go trick-or-treating:

The girls in their matching Halloween PJ's-poor Karlee-it was a long weekend for a newborn!

Baby Shower #2

I was looking through pictures this morning and realized I never mentioned the wonderful (church) shower my darling friends Michelle, Darla, and Veronica threw for me. It was on September 10th at Darla's house and was so much fun! Darla, Michelle, Veronica and I are/were all in the primary presidency (Darla has since been released) and we have so much fun chatting in the back of the primary room for the last 2 hours of church-It's definitely my favorite calling so far. Here are a few pictures that I snapped before the shower started. Of course, I set my camera down and completely forgot to take any once it started (so mad at myself)!
*on the left is a bouquet of baby sock flowers that Veronica made and next to it is the darling picture frame that my friend Heather made-they are so creative!

*The beginning of the gifts-I was spoiled!*The yummy food-everything was so pretty and I'm so lucky to have such sweet friends and such a great ward.

The girls' rooms

Mackenna started sleeping in her (little) "big girl bed" about 4 months ago and absolutely loves it. Her room looks a lot bigger without the crib in it and she loves the extra room she has to play. Here's a picture of her room now. She's become very particular about what can go on her bed. As you can see, her big stuffed teddy bear is not allowed and must sit on the floor. Glow worm, on the other hand, is not allowed to ever leave the bed, even when she's sleeping. I also had to clear off a lot of the decorations I had on her dresser because she can reach them and get out of her bed at any time (thus the reason for the stuffed animals all over the dresser-should've cleaned those off before snapping the picture-oh well)!After 9 long months of planning, designing, shopping, decorating, changing my mind, etc. here is Karlee's nursery. I picked out the fabric and designed the bedding and curtains and I'm so happy with how they turned out. I've never decorated a room all on my own before, so I was very nervous about it all, but it came together great in the end and I love it!

*on a side note: took Karlee to her one month check-up and she is now 9 lbs. 2 oz. and 21 inches. She's in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head and is doing great! So fun to have a baby that fits into newborn clothes!!

One (very sleepless) month

One Week Old

First dress-up and photo session with big sister Mackenna:

First time in her crib:

First bath:

2 Weeks old-first (of many) big bows and cute outfits from Aunty Ashley:

Loving Uncle Kevin:

Nana's still trying to catch up on her sleep thanks to little Karlee:

Karlee and cousin Colton (2 months apart):

Nana with all 4 of her grandchildren:

Weston, Ash, Kevin, and Steve had to be in the picture for some reason:

Hailey and Mackenna decorating Halloween sugar cookies:

Nana with her 2 new grandbabies:

My first full day alone with both kids-I had to document that I had them both asleep (Mackenna at the top and Karlee at the bottom of the picture) at the same time:

Love those chubby cheeks:

Mackenna's first day of her new dance class was on Thursday, Oct. 8th. She's going to the same studio that I went to for 8 years. Nana bought her new tap and ballet shoes and daddy came home to take her (I still couldn't drive yet-bummer) but she did very good...until she pushed another little girl at the end of class!! I don't know what got into her (actually, I do know. As my sister says, "her world has been rocked" by her new sister), but she hasn't done that again and hopefully it stays that way:

One of my best friends from college (Megan) was visiting from Texas (she came to pick up her brother from his mission) and was able to come spend a whole day with me. It was so nice to have company and have someone give Mackenna a ton of attention all day. However, I'm a bit worried because every time she comes to visit me, I get pregnant 2 months later!!! That definitely will NOT be happening this time:

3 weeks old-loves her swing and the pretty crocheted blanket my mom's friend made her and still has pretty olive skin and dark hair:

4 weeks old-staring to focus on things and even smiled for the first time:

It's been a crazy month and life with 2 kids is definitely double the work, but it's also double the fun (I'm singing the Doublemint song in my head right now). I love my little girls! I'm so thankful for all of the family and friends that have helped me, brought me dinner, watched Mackenna, given me advice, called, droppped of gifts and treats, etc. I'm so lucky to have so many wonderful people who care about me and my kids.

The highly anticipated birth story:

Last Monday (Sept. 21st) started out just like any other Monday: Went to my weekly doctor appointment (not dilated at all, still scheduled for c-section Sept. 30th, but told me that if I'm having more than 6 contractions an hour, to go to the hospital and she'll deliver me because I'm already full-term), brought lunch over to my friend Candice's house who just had a baby a month ago, went to Pilates that night (where I asked my trainer to kick my butt and put me into labor-she obliged), then went grocery shopping. I got home around 9pm and started having more contractions than normal. Steve got home around 10pm and told me to start writing them down. After almost 2 hours, I realized I was having about 12 contractions an hour. So, Steven convinced me to go to the hospital to get checked, even though I didn't want to and was sure they would go away if I just got some sleep. After an hour of me being in denial, we finally got packed and ready and headed to the hospital. I was dilated to a 1 and 50% effaced, so they monitored me for a couple more hours, then my doctor came in around 2a.m. and said I was in active labor and having contractions 8 minutes apart-which was weird because I wasn't really uncomfortable at all. She said to get some sleep because she booked the O.R. for me for 7:30 in the morning. I was so excited, but also tired, and surprisingly, got a great 5 hours of sleep that night.
The nurse came in and woke me and Steven up at 7am, had me sign a couple papers, talked to the anesthesiologist, Dr. Tu, the best anesthesiologist in the whole world, then got out of bed and walked across the hallway to the O.R. My nurse was hilarious and was joking with me the whole time, the other nurses opened the door for me and were singing along to the radio which was playing in the O.R the whole time, it was literally like a party in there! They all kept talking about how we're throwing a huge birthday party right now and that's really how it felt. I sat on the operating table and Dr. Tu said to lean over and within seconds told me to hurry and lay down and all of a sudden I was totally numb. LOVE the spinal...it's nothing like the epidural, I didn't feel it at all. After a few minutes, my doctor walked in and said hi, then Steven walked in and sat down next to me. We started talking about what we were going to name the baby and then I asked him to tell me when they've started the surgery. As soon as I said that, I heard a cry and the nurse pulled the sheet down and I saw this:
The cutest and most memorable part of the delivery was that as soon as they showed her to me, the song "Isn't She Lovely" started playing on the radio. I started crying, some of the nurses started singing along, and my doctor said she called and specifically requested the song to play at that exact time...haha, but it was really such a surreal and special moment. The next song that plaed after that was Faith Hill's "Just Breathe" which was also perfect because it kept me calm and relaxed while being sewn up.

Time of delivery: 7:54 a.m. on Tuesday, September 22nd.

weight: 8 lbs. 4oz.

First picture with our newest family member:

A VERY proud daddy:

Both Steven and Karlee were able to be in the operating room with me the entire time so we could bond and even have a little "skin-to-skin" time. It was awesome that they didn't have to take her away right away and made the whole thing go by so much faster:

Baby Karlee back with me after an hour in recovery for me and the nursery for her (notice I've already started going through one of my baby name books):

8 hours later, while she was sleeping, my mom shut the door to our room and told us we could not leave until we've named this child. After going through every name we've ever liked, we came back to the very first name I liked when I found out I was having a girl: Karlee. (Steven and my mom are responsible for the adorable spelling).

Luckily I had a huge double room all to myself all 3 days so my mom stayed and slept in the other bed EVERY night-she's a saint!

2nd night:

Oh no...morphine's wearing off...kept myself distracted by texting everyone that we'd finally chosen a name:

My mom holding Miss Chubby Cheeks-this was the point where we thought Karlee looked just like Mackenna (she's changed so much since then and doesn't look anything like her big sis anymore):

Day 3-in my own hospital gown I bought online-SO nice to not be in that uncomfortable hospital-issued gown (excuse the pattern-overload with the wallpaper, boppy, and gown):

Mackenna came to visit every night and was always very excited to see "baby sister" for about 2 minutes, then she became more fascinated with pushing every button in the room.

All dressed up ready to go home:

We came home Friday morning. My mom and Mackenna had decorated the driveway, it was so cute.