Dancing Queens!

Mirhonda came over to hang out the other night and as always things were...let's say entertaining. The girls are so funny when we get them together. Barbara dropped her off and we decided that we should cook tacos. It was only after they were made that Mirhonda informed me that she "Only likes tacos the way her mommy makes them." Fortunately Auntie had given her cookies to share after dinner and she knew that I wouldn't let them have them unless they ate a good dinner. So they both ate their tacos and lavished the cook with compliments which I shamelessly accepted (and yes, I do realize that they were just buttering me up so they could have dessert)!

After finishing they wanted to watch a movie (surprise, surprise) so I put on Alvin and the Chipmunks which they found HILARIOUS! Fortunately or unfortunately, however you look at it, three year olds attention spans are somewhat lacking and they quickly moved on to "cooks." They made steak, and chicken, and lobster... to think I just made them tacos! After that played itself out they decided to give ballet a try and began dancing around the house. I kept trying to get some pictures of them but they would just inform me that "They were too busy."

The funniest part of the evening for me however was when Barbara showed up to get Mirhonda and I was telling her about dinner, Barbara looked me straight in the eye and just started laughing. The reason...Mirhonda won't eat her tacos!

In the Pink Corner its Heavyweight . . . Ansley Cooler!

After last weeks appointment the visiting doctor asked us to come in this week just to check Ansley's weight and make sure that she was on a good gain. So even though it wasn't ideal it was nice to be able find out exactly where we stood and what, if anything, needed to be changed. We showed up a little bit late because getting three girls out of the house is difficult to say the least but it was well worth the trip. Last week Ansley was 6lbs 9.6oz and this week she tipped the scales at a whopping 7lbs 6.4oz so she gained almost a pound in a week! Praise God!!! Dr. Paul was very pleased and declared that she was growing by "leaps and bounds." So our next appointment is on February 10th and he said not to change a thing. Thank you all for your prayers and we would just ask that you continue to pray for steady growth. Who knows maybe by the 10th she'll weigh close to 9lbs!

Our Cubbie!!

Mayce started AWANAs two weeks ago thanks to Auntie Barbara and Mirhonda. Barbara has been helping with the program and after some discussion we felt like Mayce would actually stay as long as Auntie was there. So the first week they came and picked Mayce up and they headed off for some games, bible verses, and snacks. Mayce was so excited when we went to get her and could not stop talking about the songs that they sang and the games that they played. She even gave us a replay of the lesson time! She came home with her primer that we needed to get through in order for her to become a real Cubbie so we worked on that and she finished her verses on Wednesday!!

She recieved her vest and book and now we have more verses to work on and memorize. The funniest thing about Mayce is that no matter what the verse is she will always somehow tie it in with Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and...the donkey? One of her verses in the primer was "God loved us...and sent His Son." When Mayce said it sounded something like this "God loved us...and sent His Son called JESUS and he was a carpenter and Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem to see baby Jesus on the donkey!" She also has been holding church services in her room and my mom and Katie had to sit and listen as she preached (she said that she was Pastor Scott). The best part of all this though? She even made Katie pay tithe!!!

Two weeks and counting!

I am still absolutely amazed at how fast time flies!! Ansley was two weeks old yesterday and just like always it kind of caught us by suprise. Its funny how much things have changed in the past two weeks but also how concrete Ansley's presence in our family has become. Mayce is constantly asking where she is, what she is doing, and if she can help. As for me and Buck we are enjoying every moment of "our girls" and are loving life and the blessings that God has rained down upon us.

Ansley had her second appointment with Dr. Paul (although not really Dr. Paul seeing as he was out of town and a doctor from ABQ was covering his practice). He said that she looks great and was really suprised by how much she moves around and how alert she was. (Heaven help us this is just how Mayce was and I am not sure the world is ready for two of them...or me for that matter!) She was born at 7lbs .5oz and was 6lbs 3oz at her one week appt. This time she was 6lbs 9.6oz so although she has gained some its not as much as they would like so he asked for us to come in for a weight check next week instead of waiting for the customary one month appointment. We were a little bummed as you can imagine but at least she is gaining so just pray that she would continue to gain at a steady rate.

Mayce LOVES to love on Ansley and this morning before we left for school they were just looking at each other. It was too cute and provided a photo op that couldn't be missed!

Scrub a dub, dub, two girls in the tub!!

Ansley's cord fell off at the end of last week and after waiting a few days to make sure that it was completely closed we decided it was time for her first bath. Mayce was SO excited that Ansley was going to take a bath with her and did really well...until she figured out that Ansley took up half of the bath tub!

Ansley actually did really well and didn't even fuss until she got cold. Then it was on! Mayce was so cute though because she would tell her "It's okay baby sister, it's okay." She was more than happy once we took Ansley out though and she had free reign on her tub once again!

Ansley was content as could be once we got her wrapped and warmed up. It did take us about twenty tries to get this shot but it was well worth it as you can see.

So fresh and so clean!!

Mice and Rhinos...

I realize that this post is out of order but the pictures are too cute to pass up!! After Harlass told us that it would be fine for me to stay at the Ronald House we headed back to Alamo to pick Mayce up. One of my biggest hesitations about staying in the hospital was that it was going to keep us away from her for a week and I really struggled with that. So although the situation wasn't ideal it was made much better by having her there with us. Strange as it seems it was way easier for us to relax with her there than it would have been with her in Alamo.

Seeing as we were in all El Paso and we knew that Mayce's time as an "only" was seriously limited we decided to make the best of it and have some final fun as a family of three. Mayce already thought that the Ronald House was the best thing ever since it had a slide inside but we wanted to do something special so Monday the 5th we headed out for one last hurrah!

Food was our first order of business and much to Mayce's delight we thought that Chuckie Cheese would provide the fun atmosphere we were searching for. She had a blast and loved playing the games almost as much as daddy did! She kept waving and waving at Chuckie and was incensed that he would not wave back but we told her he was busy and she seemed okay with that.

After what seemed like hours of skeeball, basketball, and the tractor game we called it good and went in search of our next destination. During one of my previous doctors appointments Buck had noticed an advertisement for ice skating and we wanted to take Mayce but due to time constraints we were unable to. So this seemed like the perfect timing and indeed it turned out to be way more fun than any of us had hoped. Mayce loved it and although I am still suprised by the fact that El Paso has an indoor rink I am thankful for their hockey team the Rhinos.

It did takes us a while to get the child laced into her skates but once in them she was raring to go. What was funny was that she was perfectly capable of walking on them off the ice but as soon as stepped foot on the ice, "Clingo" returned and needless to say Buck was more than a little sore after our escapade. We also had to laugh at the fact that I am the one who actually likes to ice skate and I had to sit on the sidelines while he and Mayce went round and round and round.

Kid Sister and Me...

So we have had some questions about Mayce and how she is adapting to her new sister and the only word that comes to mind is swimmingly. It has been such a blessing to watch Mayce with Ansley and Buck and I are amazed at how well she has done. She has turned out to be quite the big helper and is always asking if there is anything that she can do (even wanting to help change her diaper). Its almost humorous as she gets so excited and is constantly loving on her "baby sister".

Suprisingly enough Mayce is even willing to share her toys and books. And as "Cinderella" she decided that Ansley would enjoy hearing Toy Story. She is as always a ball of energy and although Ansley has not been deemed royalty yet Buck and I are commonly referred to as "the Prince" and "Belle".

So as you can imagine our lives are a little crazy at the moment but it is certainly the best kind of crazy there is. We wouldn't trade it for the world!!

A final thought on Mayce and her kid sister...we asked Mayce what she thought about her sister one day after we picked her up from Tots and without missing a beat she stated "I love her...and I like her alot."

ONE WEEK?!?!?!

So I am in complete awe that a week has already passed since Ansley arrived. Buck and I still have a hard time believing that we now have two daughters but then again we were having difficulty believing Mayce was ours and she is three and a half!! Things are going well and so far Ansley is a sweet little girl. She is currently sleeping in three and four hour stretches throughout the night (something for which you can be sure I am VERY grateful) and is nursing without any problems. The debate is still on with regards to who she looks like. Most say she favors me but I think that the majority of that is due to her dark hair and olive complexion. We are still waiting to see what is going to happen with her eyes but even that we can't agree on. Buck thinks they are going to turn brown and I say they will stay blue...who knows only time will tell!

Ansley and Pups

The plan is to take one picture a week for the first six weeks and then one a month for her first year. Some friends of ours gave us the idea and we thought it was the perfect opportunity to see the changes in our little miss.

Now Introducing....

ANSLEY FAITH COOLER

January 7, 2009

11:14am

7lbs .5oz

20.5 inches

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So after our appointment on Tuesday I had progressed some and Harlass was still not comfortable with sending me back to Alamogordo so we decided to go ahead and induce labor. We arrived at the hospital at around 11:45am on Tuesday only to be informed by the charge nurse that instead of being admitted at that time we should go and have a nice lunch because as soon as I was in room I wasn't going to be allowed anything but ice chips until delivery. Thank the Lord for that nurse as she made the day go by much quicker not to mention with a little less hunger. So Buck and I headed back out and ran some errands eventually eating at Quiznos before returning to the hospital around 3pm.

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Things are pretty dull from here until around 1:15am when they started the Pitocin drip which evidently I respond quite well to. Around 5:40am Harlass came in and broke my water and things really started rolling. By this time I was starting to actually feel my contractions, as opposed to the ones that I slept through until that point, but being completely stubborn as we all know that I am I had decided that I could make it without an epidural. What I didn't realize was how hard and fast they would be coming and so after some coercion from Buck I asked for one. What they fail to tell you however is that after you ask for the medication they have to run a bolus which takes an HOUR and A HALF!!!

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Poor Buck's hand was about to fall off I am sure and we were both more than thankful when they were finally able to administer the meds. By this time I was at 6cm and contractions were coming every 1.5 to 2 minutes and lasting for around 45 seconds a piece so even the anesthesiologist was surprised I had lasted as long as I did. After they kicked in I was able to sleep for about an hour and half before our nurse came in checked me declaring that I was ready to go. So we started pushing around 10am, Harlass arrived around 11am, and we welcomed Ansley into the world at 11:14am.

The first thing that I said when they placed her on my chest was that she was huge and although compared to most she is average when compared to 2.7lbs she is a monster. Needless to say the nurses all found this humorous and Buck and I were just in awe of the blessing that God had given us.

So as you all now know Ansley's middle name is Faith. Buck and I felt this fitting to our life and family as Mayce's middle name is Grace and it is by the grace of God that she is here and with Ansley it took a lot of faith to try again after the experience that we had. As Pastor Scott says "God is good all the time, all the time God is good." Never has a statement been more true!

And so the story goes...

I wanted to make sure that everyone was updated on what was taking place so here we go. Last Wednesday I had an appointment with Dr. Harlass, he said that everything looked fine and that they would start checking me at my next appointment. Well seeing as I had been experiencing large amounts of pressure and some pain I asked that he go ahead. Much to his and our surprise I was already dilated two centimeters and almost completely thinned out. He told us to come back on Friday stating that in all likelihood he would end up keeping me for observation at the least.

At my appointment on Friday I was three and completely effaced so he sent me over to Del Sol to figure out what stage, if any, of labor that I was in. After an hour or so on the monitors they decided that I was contracting but not anything that would amount to true labor so they moved me from L and D to postpartum for observation. I will be 37wks on Tues so Buck and I thought that Harlass might just go ahead and start a drip (or something) to push me into active labor. However, after a night in the hospital where neither of us slept (which I find ironic seeing as people go to the hospital to get better) Harlass came in on Saturday morning and told us that although I wasn't progressing because I was so close that he was just going to keep me in the hospital.

Thank the Lord for Buck because he knew that I was going to go stir crazy in that little room and he asked Dr. Harlass if the Ronald House would be an option. Harlass whole heartedly agreed that that was a better route and Buck got on the phone. We were fortunate enough to secure the last room available at the house so I know that God is in this. I am supposed to call tomorrow and set up an appointment on Tuesday to discuss induction. Ansley is measuring between 6lbs 9oz and 6lbs 13oz so just pray that God would give us all wisdom in how to proceed from here on out.

We are so thankful for the house but will admit that it is odd to be here again and almost freaked when we thought that they were going to put us in the same room we had before. Mayce thinks that its the coolest thing ever seeing as there is a slide INSIDE and having her here has at least added a sense of normalcy to the situation. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers we will try our best to keep everyone up to date with changes as they occur. We love you all!!!