Things Toddler's Get into!

All moms and dads know this situation, you walk out of a room while you toddler is minding his/her own business making lots of noises, then all of a sudden silence. You then start to realize you have not heard them  for a bit and go on a search to find them and you walk in on a situation that is either funny or messy. 

I found myself in this situation yesterday with Carson, luckily it was a funny situation and a camera was needed to capture the moment, a moment in a few years he will be hunting down the pictures to destroy evidence of this ever happening. Yesterday, I found him in my room with a necklace full of my underwear  he had to have had at least 10 pairs on his head, as he continued to pull them over his head he kept repeating shirt, shirt, shirt.

 Looking at Carson with all my underwear on his head brought me back to a picture my mom or dad took when I was little with my Dad's underwear on my head, I need to locate the picture and compare :) It is times like these that I can't help but love being a mom with a cute of a kid as Carson. 

I am so happy that I am a bit of a laid back mom to be able to just laugh at the situation rather than looking at it as a big mess that I had to eventually clean up, it is moment's like these that make a lifetime of memories. Grandma Dicken's asked on Facebook, "LOL again!!! What's next on the docket?" And to that question I say, "Not sure, but bring it on, I want the memories."

A New Baby in the House

As of today we have only 13 weeks until Sydni's due date, man how time has flown, and with that we have started making the necessary preparations to welcome her into our family. First on our list of must haves was to borrow Teresa's bassinet so we would have a place to lay her head when she comes home from the hospital. Being a new mom with a toddler, I didn't expect the next outcome. We got the bassinet set up in our bedroom and we immediately got our new baby boy! Wait, I thought I was told I was having a girl this time, and yes that is still correct, our new baby turned out to be our adorable Carson! He really wanted to get into the baby bed and lay down, so pictures of course had to come. After posting the pictures of Carson in the bassinet it is hard to believe that once a bassinet such as this one nearly looked like it would swallow him up less than two years ago, how time speeds onward. From various people I should look forward in the months to come to Carson attempting to fit into all the baby items, should be a fun experience. 

 Oh, how he used to fit so perfectly in the bassinet. Mom's baby is no longer a baby.

His always joyful expression.

All Snuggled with "B"

Didn't want to make a entire post for one picture, but did think this was a cute picture and expression on Carson's face while playing with Daddy!

Nemo, Nemo, Nemo

Carson LOVES Nemo! The other day when he saw a little girl in Walmart holding Nemo he absolutely had to have it. The mother was not planning to purchase it, so when she saw Carson's crocodile tears as I started to walk away, she told her daughter to give Nemo to him. Carson could not have been happier. 

Family History Success!

On Sunday, I was able to confirm through 3 sources a husband and thus get his work requested for the temple, however, it was saying I still needed permission to do so, which should not have been the case. So on Monday, Mama came over to see if she could figure it out, which we ended up just requesting the ordinances and then submitting feedback to Family Tree. In the meantime we taught each other things about family history, and I eventually showed Mama a site called eancestry.com, this site has great sources and I was able to find some of my ancestors on, so she decided to take a look for herself. As she was going through and finding her relatives, she noticed that an Edward of her line had married a and O'Donnell who is related to a Holyoak, both names are directly linked in my family tree.  Through some additional research on my side and using the PAF file of Robert's family Mama had given me a few weeks ago, we were able to make a connection of mutual grandparents that Robert and I have. For me these grandparents are 7 generations back and for Robert they are 6 generations back. Our mutual grandparents are Robert Edward Sr. and Mary Anne Russell, from them our family branch between two brothers. It was fun to make the connection, knowing how from the bible that we are all connected here on earth it was fun to see a match up point, I never thought  I would make a connection like this. Family history work is so addicting and so fun, and to find information like this makes it even more fun. We might even try to find an old picture of our mutual grandparents if we can and display it in our home as a keepsake. We now have a family joke about how we married our cousin, but I love my cousin and would not change it another way, in reality we all married our cousin we just have to find that mutual family member :) If you ever want to learn family history, I am here to help teach you!

Lego, Legos, and More Legos

For Christmas, Santa brought Carson some legos and lately he has been stacking and making his own little creations, so this got Mom and Dad thinking, he needs more. There is not much you can create with only 70 legos, so we started our search for the best price for the most legos, as you can see we got a lot of legos now. Even though it might have been a little bit of an investment we were able to get 505 pieces for a pretty good price, cheaper per lego than the store sells. We ended up getting pretty much every size Lego Duplo that you can imagine, as well as almost every color in the rainbow , we were pretty excited about our find, we now can make a lot of creations. To be honest Mom and Dad were more excited about the purchase than Carson was, we must still be kids at heart! To test out the legos we made a tower using every single lego and this is what we came up with. Carson really just wanted to knock it down and we eventually let him, but that is why it was on the counter for the pictures, he could enjoy it, hehehe (Wish I could figure out how to upload the destruction of the tower to the blog.) I am sure we will have many more fun times as a family playing with these legos throughout the years, hope Carson ends up playing with them more rather than just having fun dumping the box out, but still fun to hear him attempt to say legos! 

My Guys!

Can I just say I am one lucky girl to have to have a wonderful husband and an absolutely adorable little boy! It melts my heart to see them interacting together, and I can never pass up an opportunity to show how much they love each other.  Carson loves ice, he loves it so much that if you are eating ice he will give you kisses just to try to get the ice, this is what is happening in the picture below, so cute!

Cousin Fun

For Christmas we gave Robert's sister Shauna and her husband Doug, a date package, childcare included in this package. So for their anniversary they decided to take us up on the date to celebrate in peace. As you will be able to tell shortly Carson loves when any of his many cousins come over to play, he has to be right in the middle of things. This time he had the pleasure of playing with Paige, Preston, and Kate for a few hours. I swear they played or got out every single toy we own, including our toy guns made by Grandpa Dickens. I say this because at the time the cable guy had also come over to take a look and hopefully improve out poor reception, with every kid having a rifle or gun I had my own little militia and didn't feel at all scared with him being in the house, but honestly if I had not had them I still would not have felt scared, just a cute story to tell.   All in all we had a very fun time playing cars, playing Mario kart, and lots of other various activities. Thanks cousin's for coming over and having a good time with us!

Leah Rae

On Sunday March 3rd, 2012 my little brother Daniel and his wife Desarae had their first baby, little Leah Rae. She was born in the evening, so we didn't make it up to meet our new niece until Monday evening, and it was well worth the wait. She is such a cutie, and I could not be more happy for them and their little family. I am excited to see Leah grow up and grow up together with my her cousin Sydni to be born in a few short months. Unfortunately  Carson was not able to meet his new little cousin due to a cold, but hopefully in the near future, he has been saying her name perfectly for a few months now. We love her already, welcome to the family Leah Rae Payne. 

24 Weeks.

Not a lot has been happening these last few weeks.... Except that I feel like I popped exponentially over the last few weeks. 24 weeks today, and a milestone, I passed my glucose test, yippee  Our baby girl, Sydni, is getting big and strong, and she definitely lets me know just how big and strong, constantly throughout the day and extra through the night! I am starting to constantly feel her little feet jabbing under my ribs, and moving side to side for some playtime. 

Today I also registered at the hospital  so if anything should come up I can go right to labor and delivery. This step for me always makes the birth of a new baby more real. Despite the 4 lb weight gain this last month, and getting a little more uncomfortable  I would not change this experience of bringing another little one into the world, I love being a mommy! A short 16 weeks until our little girl makes her debute into this world and joins her big brother Carson, Mommy, and Daddy. 

Getting better at taking the belly shots in the mirror, and getting a lot more shots being pregnant this second time around,  I am sure I will love these keepsakes in the upcoming years. 

Movie Day

Carson loves shows and movies, and will ask to watch them continuously if we let him. So on Tuesday that is exactly what we did, we watched shows and movies. Earlier that day as I was cleaning his room, he seized the opportunity to grab his Bumbo out of the closet and proceeded to carry it into the front room. In regards to his Bumbo he has come leaps and bounds, he now loves it, even though his bum is getting a tad bit too big for it. 

Watching Doc McStuffins in his Bumbo Chair

Later that day, we curled up on Mom's bed and watched Tarzan, it was a very fun afternoon to say the least. Love spending time with my little boy on a daily basis, thanks for a wonderful husband who makes this possible for the both of us. 

Better Late then Never-Carson's Birth Story

Carson’s Delivery Story

Though I am not very good at writing, I feel like I really need to jot down the proceedings of Carson’s birth before they really get fuzzy, and yes I know I am writing this account 20 months after he was born.

It all started at my 39 week appointment, and unfortunately my blood pressure was getting pretty high in the 130s which was not normal for me, so Dr. Harrison placed me on modified bed rest, which meant that I could still work, but I need to stay off my feet as much as possible, this was on Wednesday the 22^nd of June. Dr. Harrison wanted me back in early Friday morning to see how my blood pressure was doing after the modified bed rest, so I scheduled time off with my boss and headed over to her office to check my blood pressure.

Unfortunately, it had not decreased and was continuing to raise, not sure how high at this point, but that is when she decided to put me on full bed rest and have me take a 24 hour urine test to test the proteins in my urine and then I was to come back on Monday the 27^th to get results and see where to go from there.  I then proceeded to call my boss to let him know that I would be starting my maternity leave that day, and proceeded to cry because I didn't want to start my leave until the day my baby boy was born, I wanted every second of the 12 weeks that I could with him, however, looking back on it Heavenly Father had it all worked out, and indeed it worked out perfectly. Regarding bed rest, it is the most boring thing that anyone could be put on. So if you only thought shows repeated maybe twice a day you would be wrong, sometimes the shows repeated 3 or 4 days a day. I ended up sleeping most of the time, because it was just dang boring, and I could not do much. Luckily, on Saturday Robert talked me into going to RC Willey to get some pie. The unfortunate part of the whole thing was feeling like an invalid. Meaning, he had to push me in the wheelchair through the entire store to get to the back where the pie was located, I felt like every eye was one me, thinking she is only pregnant why can’t she just walk, and I would have if Robert would have let me.  

On Monday Robert and I returned to Dr. Harrison’s office to get the results of the 24 hour urine test as well a retest my blood pressure. Because we were not expecting the outcome that ultimately did come, we didn't prepare anything in case we were sent over to the hospital. I still had not packed for the hospital stay even though my due date was 5 days away; Robert had just put on some grungy clothes expecting to just go into work late, and the list goes on and on. We were given the results that if Dr. Harrison continued to let the baby grow inside me, it would surely turn into preeclampsia, so she decided to send word to the hospital to have me induce that morning. That for sure was a shock, I knew the birth was coming, but I didn't expect it to turn out the way it did, and I always thought I would go spontaneously on my own, but I guess that was not in my cards. So we headed home to pack our bags, eat a little bit of breakfast and make our way over to the hospital to have us a little baby boy. 

So as you can see, I was going to get my wish I would only have to use one day of my 12 weeks maternity before starting the wonderful experience of bringing my baby boy into this world to grow and process. After returning home and preparing to go to the hospital we arrived at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center to be induced, we arrived about 11 o’clock am on June 27^th, 2011. Our labor and delivery room could not have had a more beautiful view, it was facing Mt. Timpanogos, which was still capped with snow from our wonderful snow season that year, it was just beautiful, and I am glad they moved us to this delivery room at the last moment. Because, I was only possibly dilated to 1 cm and 70% to hopefully avoid a c-section they started me on a drug known as Cytotec, which was used to soften my cervix and start the dilatation process, before they hooked me up to Pitocin. I was given 3 doses of Cytotec beginning about 1 o’clock pm and continuing every 3 hours until they started me on Pitocin about 11:30 pm. Talk about a long day, by the time they started Pitocin I was about 100% effaced and 3 cm dilated, so the Cytotec did its job, and Pitocin started taking over its function. By the time of my last dose of Cytotec, I was getting a bit crampy, but no pain, so I knew it was starting to take effect and start me into labor.

The nurses asked me if I wanted to get my epidural at the time they started Pitocin, and it was a hard decision for me. I had yet to feel what labor felt like, but it was almost midnight, and I knew I needed some sleep and if I got the epidural I might be able to doze off for a little while and rest. So after some thought I decided to get the epidural for that reason, not because of immediate pain, and looking back on it and how the rest of the experience went, I needed all the rest I could get. I was able to doze off for a few hours, and about 2 o’clock am the resident doctor came to check my dilatation as well as break my water, at that time I had dilated to 5cm, and he broke my water. That is when my labor took off, they checked me again at 5 o’clock and I was completely dilated to 10 cm. They contacted Dr. Harrison who at the time was feeding her new little girl Ryan and she said she would be in as soon as she finished nursing her, she also instructed the nurses to do some practice pushes with me. That is when things kind of got a little scary,when I pushed for the first time, our baby’s heart beat dropped to below 100, immediately Dr. Harrison got a hold of my nurses and had them stop the pushing until she was able to arrive at the hospital.  When Dr. Harrison arrived she checked the baby, and found that he was in the posterior position, which was why I had felt the entire labor and pressure in my back.  She told us that she would attempt to move him manual with her arm as I contracted; however, she warned that if the baby’s heartbeat did not tolerate this manual movement, we would end up in a c-section. Through a miracle our little boy, did a wonderful job through the whole process of turning him into the correct and easiest position for birth. 

This process of the birth started about 6:30 am on June 28^th, the process went like this, I would contact and she would turn his head a bit, then she would hold his head in the new position through a couple of contractions, until finally he was in the correct position to descend further into the birth canal and enter the world. By this point as you can imagine I was already exhausted and had not much strength, but I was still not finished, at one point Dr. Harrison asked me to bring my head closer to my chest, but I just couldn't so Robert as I pushed held my head in that position. With the help of Robert and Dr. Harrison as my biggest support, I continued to push through the pressure and exhaustion. By the end Dr. Harrison could tell, I didn't seem to have the strength to push him completely out, so she said if I could get him just a bit closer she could help assist with the help of a vacuum on his little head. When I got to the point that she could put the vacuum on his little head, and with my help we were able to bring this little one into the world. Robert said afterwards she was pulled so hard, her arms were shaking, but I am so grateful for her help. This is where the emotions start to take over, it still feels like yesterday that Carson came into the world and was placed on my chest.

 Words cannot express, the love I had for him at that moment, I had waited for this little guy through 2 miscarries and full pregnancy and delivery that I might say I cherished this moment more than I would have if I had not gone through those previous losses. There simply are no words to describe that moment when I first saw my precious baby boy, and heard his sweet cry. I was overcome with emotion. I felt relieved that it was all over and grateful that I held a perfect, sweet angel straight from Heaven in my arms.I looked up at my wonderful husband, who had tears in his eyes, and together we cried as we marveled at the precious gift from God we had just been given. Carson came into this world at 7:48 am on June 28th, 2011 weighing 6 lbs 7.8 Oz and measuring 19 1/2 inches long, a perfect little boy that was to call me mommy, the greatest gift anyone could ask for. 

I write this mostly for precious boy Carson, that he knows how he came into our family and the love that we had for him at that time. I also want him to know that I will continue to love him just as much as the first moment I laid eyes on him, and will continue to support and protect him throughout my life, love you my first born and wonderful son!

Daddy's Little Helper

On Sunday, Carson had to help daddy with the dishes. He has to be right in the action when we are trying to get things done, which is can be a pain, but I still think it is cute that he tries so hard to help. Yesterday was no exception, and by the end he had been stripped of his sopping wet clothing and created a swimming pool on the kitchen floor, but hey he had quality time with his Daddy. 

I have the greatest son and husband that anyone could ask for. I love watching them play, work, laugh, and do anything together!

Carson after his strip down, as you can see he was having a lot of fun.

Our little Picasso

Carson loves to ask us to color, and most of the time it only lasts a few minutes as he gets crazy and then starts to draw on furniture that he knows he is not supposed to be coloring on. It is cute to watch him, sometimes he lays on his stomach and colors, who does that, wait he must have watched me color. He loves coloring in his Mickey coloring book, in these pictures he is looking more and more grown up. Where has my baby gone. 

Pinterest Flop

With the help of Pinterest, I have been attempting new recipes and starting to get more dishes in my cooking, which is hard because I am a very picky eater. Well the other night I decided to make Lemon Angel Hair Pasta with chicken, only I used spaghetti noodles instead. In addition to not having angel hair pasta, I had to make a substitute for half and half and use lemon juice from a bottle instead of fresh squeezed juice. Well it turns out that while making this, supposed to be a delicious pasta meal, I turned it into lemon bar spaghetti, all I needed to add was powdered sugar and you would have dessert. I inadvertently added the wrong amount of lemon juice, tasted disgusting  we ended up going out to eat that night because I did not want to cook anymore after that blunder. A few nights later I attempted it again, with the right amount of lemon juice, however, still a bit too lemon flavor for me, so next time I will use even less. 

Robert posted this on his facebook: Note to Self: Make absolutely sure you do your conversions correctly when adding lemon juice to your pasta dish, otherwise you might end up with something resembling lemon bar spaghetti. Needless to say I did not get brownie points for this masterpiece. 

Pasta without chicken, did not put in after the lemon flop!

Skyping

 It is a wonderful time in history when we can use technology to bless and give enjoyment to our children, Skype is one of our favorites at home. Within the last few months Robert has purchased a couple of headsets one for home and one for work, which allows at times for Carson to talk to Daddy while he is at work. It is fun to watch his face light up when he hears Daddy through the computer, and I am sure his wheels are turning trying to figure out how he is hearing and talking to Daddy. Yesterday I decided to take some pictures of Carson while talking today, he looks so grown up in these pictures.