Just because...

Looking through pictures to post, I came across these. Random, and in no particular order. Like my life. Every day. And I love it. A lot.

Dancing Queen

It's true. Aubrey started her first dance class back in Sept and while she's had a few classes where dancing was NOT an option, she is loving it, and I love just watching her. She has her first recital on Dec 18th, and I'll be there on the front row with my video camera charged and ready to go!



I don't know if Eva will dance or not, she may prove to be our gymnast (if you know her you know what I mean).

Sweet little Nora

I suppose it's fair to say that each child comes into this world in their own way and with their own individual personatity. Nora was no exception. For those interested, this is her "story".

We were supposed to be at the hospital monday morning at 7 to be induced. Needless to say I demanded breakfast so we stopped by St Louis Bread Co for some breakfast. We didn't get there until 7:40. They hooked us up to the pitocin around 8:30ish and set it to a 2 (the lowest possible setting I think). We had a plan. That plan included another natural childbirth. The doctor checked me and said we were a 2. Still. Around 9:30 my doctor came in to break my water. She checked me first and said we were at a 5. I suppose the pitocin was working. She broke my water -- which did not happen easily. The contractions weren't bad at all. I pulled out my book (Cathing Fire) and continued reading. I took a break to hop in the jacuzzi tub. Got out and sat on the birthing ball. Kept reading my book. Just after 1 Tammy, my awesome nurse, came in to see how we were doing. The contractions still weren't too bad. She asked if I wanted to be checked and I said, "why not". She checked me and we were a 9! Getting there. Then all of a sudden while checking me she says "Oh, shoot". Only she didn't say shoot. I freaked out. All she did was grab her cell phone (with one hand still inside me) and call my doctor. She said something about the cord and doing an emergency c-section. She yelled for other nurses and before I knew what was happening they were wheeling me down the hall to the operating room (bum fully in the air). I'm sure the people in the waiting room were a bit confused. In the two minutes it took them to get me to the operating room my doctor was there. Fortunately her office is across the parking lot from the hospital so she literally ran right over. She held my hand and told me everything was going to be ok. As scared and nervous as I was, I believed her and totally felt calm. But with no epidural and a hand still shoved inside me, I was in pain. They got me onto the operating table and my doctor wanted to check me again to see if I was far enough along to push. I pushed a few times but with the cord right there trying to come out and only being a 9, the pushes weren't going to help. Within minutes I was being strapped to the table and was out cold. Poor Ryan. This entire time he was in our hospital room just waiting for some kind of explanation/answer. Nora a born at 1:38, so all of this happened in less than half an hour. I am so thankful for amazing doctors and nurses who stayed calm and knew what they were doing. I have no doubt that the blessing Ryan gave me the night before was exactly what I needed.

So why the c-section? Well, Dr Reining (my OB) checked me when I was a 5 and noticed that Nora's hand was up by her face and over her head. She was literally grabbing her hand while she was checking me. Cute. She informed me that this wasn't a problem and that delivering like that might cause some bruising, but wouldn't cause any permanent damage. Well, when the nurse checked and I was a 9 not only was Nora's hand still above her head, but the umbilical cord had slipped between her head and arm and was trying to come out first. This was cutting off circulation/oxygen. They tried to push it back in (that part did not feel good at all :), but no success.

With a rough start in this world, Nora has done amazing. She is an incredible eater/nurser and her coloring is better than my other girls was. She weighed 8 lb 5 oz (same as Aubrey) and was 20 inches long with a 14 in head. And lots of hair. She is just beautiful, and we couldn't be happier to finally have her with us and be able to hold her and give her kisses. She gets lots of those.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, they helped. Dr Reining has already told us that next time around we won't have any problems having a VBAC which we were grateful for. We are happy. Happy with the Drs, happy with the way things worked out, and happy with Nora. If I don't make sense or if I'm rambling I apologize, I am still on some drugs. Good drugs.

We are still working on a middle name, but here is our little Nora. Our Angel. Our stinker, who had her own plan for coming into this world.



More pictures to come soon!

Our baby is 2

Wow, time sure does fly. I guess I'm trying to catch up on some blogging because before I know it this baby will be making her debut. Just another testament to how quickly time really can fly by.

Eva turned 2 on July 20, and we celebrated with friends, food, and Elmo. I special thank you to Tracey Gonthier for putting so much of this together. The cake was PERFECT, and the games were a hit.

Happy birthday monkey...we love you more than you know.

June VA trip

Ryan has been studying like crazy for his series 7 exam, and was planning on taking hte week long course to prepare. That meant we weren't going to see him for the entire week. The girls and I decided it would be a great time to head back to VA for a good old fashioned visit. So we did. The girls were amazing for the entire trip, and we were able to knock off an entire hour of driving time. This may not sound like much, but when you're 6 months pregnant with a 3 and 1 year old strapped in carseats, an hour is big. Here are a few highlights from our trip.

Lunch and ice cream with great grandpa (Lacey's grandpa who is 92). He spoils the girls, and after about 5 minutes of warming up, they LOVE him. They especially love to "feel his whiskers".



A day trip to Charlottesville to spend the day with Aunt Jamie and cousins Lucy and Bennett. We went to this awesome kids place, and lame me didn't charge the camera battery. At least I got one. Eva loved painting on the walls. Thanks Jamie for a fun afternoon!


Sunday dinner with Hyrum, Melissa, Rod, and Jamie, and all of their kids (7 cousins). The girls were in heaven and talked about is for weeks after being home. Seriously. Weeks.




Swimming with grandma. The pool was perfect for little kids, and grandma was the perfect swimming buddy. Thanks Grandma!


Finally, our last night we headed up to Blacksburg to spend the night with Hyrum, Melissa, and all 5 cousins. We had a great FHE, and a spectacular performance from the kids. Aubrey was in heaven with her cousins and loved playing dressup. I even got to stay up late to play Rummikub. Good times.





Thanks to everyone who made this visit a memorable one. We missed our daddy, but if anyone is still reading this, and wants to know, he PASSED his series 7 and we couldn't be happier!

This one's for daddy...

Ryan left this morning for Charlotte and will be gone until friday. By lunchtime monday we realized we really missed him. Thanks daddy for always working so hard so we can do things like this:



And for keeping smiles on our faces like this:




Oh how we love, and miss like crazy, our daddy. Hurry up friday...you can't come soon enough :)

Girls...all we really want are girls

And we're getting them. This past week we found out that come september we can expect yet another baby girl. We are so excited, but baffeled when it comes to choosing names. I'll post another poll as soon as we can narrow it down to some that we like.

Aside from that, not too much has been happening at the Lenahan house this past month. Ryan has been studying a lot for his series 7 exam and is gone some nights as a result. I guess the only upside to that (if there is an upside) is that I don't have to "cook" dinner. One night I asked the girls what they wanted and in true Aubrey fashion she asked for pancakes. We spiced it up a bit and the girls loved it!




We also spent saturday morning/afternoon at the O'fallon, MO founders day. The girls loved the games and activites, but the highlight was Aubrey's first pony ride. Thanks Freckles for the ride!

Easter

We were so busy having fun that I forgot to bring the camera just about everywhere we went this Easter weekend. We did manage to get a few pictures of the girls in their dresses, but due to some serious wind (and two very anti camera girls), we got what we got. Here are a few of our favorites (and really the only few that turned out decent).

Sweet little Hailey

I was going through some pictures to update our blog when I came across this angelic little face. Hailey Hunter. It was nearly a month ago that she left this earth for a greater purpose. Though she is sorely missed and numerous hearts ache to see her smiling face and hold her in their arms, she is in the best of company and, I'm convinced, very happy. Our hearts go out to Billy and Crystal whose lives have been forever changed because of this sweet little girl and whose relationship with their Savior has no doubt reached new heights and understanding. You are a strength to us, and I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your sweet angel with us. Even though she slept the entire time she was here, our home will forever be a better place because of her. We love you Billy and Crystal, and we love you Hailey.

Gas

I have always said that I need to get better at recording the cute, and absolutely hilarious, things our kids say. Here's one from today:

We were walking out the door and Aubrey looked at me and said, "Mom, I passed gas in my mouth". After a quick laugh I said, "you mean you burped?" to which she replied, "yeah, mom, I burped".

Funny girl. She gets the gas from her daddy ;)

Sport Princess

I see all my friends with their new businesses and great ideas, and am on the search for an idea all my own. Wish I would have thought of this one. My friend Bethany (aka: beefcakes) has started a new blog called Sport Princess. It's actually an entire line of books and dolls that are making their big debut in June. The first book comes out in June and, in honor of the World Cup in Africa this year, she is launching her first book Josephina "Jo" the Soccer Princess. What a great way to mix the glitz and mud :). So put your glittery football stripes under your, and your little princess's, eyes and check out her new blog. Totally exciting!

Happy Birthday to our baby girl!

I realized I didn't post once in the month of february (boo me) and a lot happened. All I really want to talk about was the fact that Aubrey, my baby girl, turned 3 on the 23rd. Seriously, 3 already? Ryan's parents, more affectionately known as Papa and GG, came in to celebrate with us. Unfortunately Ryan had to work on tuesday, but the girls and I headed over to Papa and GG's hotel for some good old fashioned swim time. It was a huge hit with the girls.


We couldn't just not celebrate on her birthday so, while the festivities were scheduled for the following day, we did do some that night. We made some cupcakes and opened presents. She was in heaven.
Our sweet Aubrey, 100% girl.

Aubrey decorated her own cupcake, as if you couldn't tell :)

Our little Eva monkey, 100% mess :)

I wish the pictures of her opening her presents, and dressing up in her new tinkerbell fairy garb were showing up. Your loss ;)

The next day Ryan took the day off and we head in for our long overdue dentist's appointments, took a little nap, and then headed off to Aubrey's favorite place -- quite possibly in her little world -- Monkey Joes (see the post from Aubrey's birthday a year ago) for some fun. We hadn't been in quite awhile so this was Eva's first time actually playing. She was terrified at first, but once she realized that everything bounces and slides she jumped on the bandwagon. Confession: Our camera had magically disappeared prior to the birthday festivities and I am pulling pictures off an email from GG, and some of them aren't showing up, so no pictures at MJ's. But the fun did not stop there. We headed to McDonald's (probably Aubrey's second favorite place in the world) for some dinner and more playtime. Again, no pictures.

We have started a slight birthday tradition for Aubrey here in STL. Aubrey and one of her best friends, Jonathan, have the same birthday. Same day, same year. As a result, and because they're still young enough for us to get away with it, we celebrate together. They joined us at MJ's and McD's, and then we headed back to their house for some cake and ice cream (thanks for taking care of that this year Steph). Unfortunately, no pictures there either.

We had a fun-filled day with our little birthday princess, and can't imagine our little family without Aubrey (how cliche am I :), our little drama creating diva.

A MILLION HUGS AND KISSES FOR YOU, AUBREY!

Merry (belated) Christmas

We had a funfilled Christmas/New Years which consisted of 3 different states and lots of food, fun, and family. We left St Louis on Christmas Eve and made the 12+ hour drive to Buena Vista, VA to spend Christmas with my family. It was quite the houseful with mom, dad, georgi, hyrum, melissa, lauren, hailey, logan, spencer, landon, aaron, mary, little georgi, hannah, ryan, me, aubrey, and eva. I don't think there is anyone I forgot, but after 15 I start to lose count ;). We even got to talk to Elder Smith in New Mexico, and that was one of the highlights of the entire trip. I made sure to pack the video camera and the regular digital to fully document out adventures. Turns out I didn't. I was just having to much fun. Instead I'll include some pictures of our family christmas in STL (we didn't feel like hauling all those wrapped presents just to bring them back home).






But no, the fun didn't stop there. Ryan's sister Christina (we love you Kiki) booked the entire Lenahan family a three day/three night stay at the most amazing cabin on the TN/GA border. It was absolutely wonderful. We ate, played games, kicked it in the hot tub, made smores over the fire, and of course -- in true Lenahan fashion -- watched plenty of football. It was a blast. And of coarse I was having so much fun to forgot to document it. So, a big thanks to GG and Kiki for taking some pictures and sending them to me (and letting me steal them from FB :).







In case you were still wondering, the fun most definitely did not end there. Scotty, Ryan's brother booked us an amazing night away at an amazing hotel in downtown Atlanta. I have to admit that in nearly 3 years of motherhood, that was the first night I have EVER spent away from the girls, and it was long overdue. Ryan and I stayed up late watching a move, took a midnight trip to Ihop (per Lacey's request :), and had a nice made to order breakfast and workout the next morning. Then after a little shopping (and discovering my new favorite store, The Container Store) we headed back to our sweet little girls. Thanks again Bubba, I can't tell you how perfect that gift was! Unfortuntaely, we also had too much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. What a slacker!

One last thought before I wrap up this chapter in a long novel of blog catch up. Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband. Ryan, you have made the past 4 years educational ones, but mostly just wonderful. Two sweet girls later (with more to come) and I am the happiest I've ever been. I love you. A lot. *Muah*




More pictures from our trips (not sure why some are big and some small -- sorry)!