2 weeks

Max at the hospital, he looks a little concerned...

Wow! The first two weeks have gone by very fast. Amy and I are finally venturing back into the world; I even managed a trip to Costco with BOTH kids, and Amy went to church today. Here are a few pics, and I will try and figure out how to set up a slide show with all the cute pictures. Our cousin Christal just took newborn pics for us and they came out so wonderful....stay tuned :-)

Uncle Jeremy surprised us last week with a visit to meet his new niece.Such a good big brother. He often asks to hold her, and then says he want to nurse her too...we are teaching him that only mommy can do that :-)
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She's Here!

Amy Lee Anderson made her arrival on April 3, 2009 at 3:06pm. 8lbs 12oz and 22 1/4 in long! She's a pretty big girl! Our day started at the Dr's office at 9am where I was excited to learn that I was dilated to a 2! So I made an appt for 3pm that afternoon to see where we were at and looked forward to probably having her this weekend. So rather than sit around all day at home thinking every little ping could be labor, I decided to take Max Thrift store shopping. So there I was at the thrift store at 10am and my water broke! I waddled out to the sidewalk before it was really a mess :-( I managed to get Max in the car,and call Brian (who was working from home) and drive home before heading to the hospital. By the time I was home contraction were less that 5 minutes, and by the time we checked in they were less than 2 minutes! So I tried to go natural... after about 2 hours I had some Stadol to take the edge off, by 2:15pm I didn't think I could keep going and I was only a 4, so I screamed for the anesthesiologist, and there was no break between contractions. They got everything set up for the epidural, poked, prodded and taped it with still no relief when I needed to push! So they called for my Dr and told me to hang on...yeah right try not pushing! Thinking the epidural was at least going to kick in for the fun part, I kept yelling at the nurses that I could feel everything. Dr. came down two pushed later (still no epidural :-) Amy Lee entered the world! So I guess I get bragging rights that it was technically natural! She is a happy girl with very chunky thighs and long toes! Everything is going well, and Max is so excited to be a big brother. We are happy to be home and settling into our new routine!

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We Have a Nursery

Being Pregnant you sometimes get these wild thoughts in your head. So when we found out we were having a girl I thought that it would be a great idea to give our crib a face lift. It was white and I thought it would look cute brown and pink. Well I should have stopped with that thought, but instead I waited and finally decided to do something about it when I am 8 months pregnant!



So I sanded the crib, not as easy as I imagined in my head. And yes I was safe, hence the great gangster look here!After sanding, I was able to start taping it all off (again, forgot how painstakingly tedious this is). And then finally got to the painting part (excuse the great painting clothes chosen here!)But in the end I must admit that I am happy with the results. So with just over 20 days to go, we finally have a crib and cleaned up the nursery. It is very girly, but I love it! A special thanks to my patient husband through this process (he even sanded a little) and my big helper Max who helped tidy the nursery and took some good naps so I could be productive!
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Max Update

I don't know if I am just a bad blogger, or bad mom :-( Max has had many milestones come to pass, and what better place to share the news than on a blog...so here is a recap! On New Years Day, Max made the New Years resolution to potty train... Well it worked, we started New Years day and have been going strong! It really was the hardest thing I think I have done in terms of raising a kid, and it took awhile before I even saw the advantage of doing it (Diapers were easier :-) After about two weeks, my husband wanted Max to start standing...well I will say things will be A LOT cleaner with a girl, but Max loves being a big boy, and is always asking for the urinal when I take him in a public restroom. I wish they all had one, but we can make do without. But now that it is done we are happy in ALL of our diligence (Brian, Max and myself), and hopefully it will not all go away with baby #2!

So in other milestones, Max has known his alphabet since before New Years. We did flashcards in his bath and he loves pointing out all the letters throughout the day. We also discovered he knew how to count to ten. One day he was asking his dad to watch a show, Brian jokingly said, "Ok you can watch a show if you can count to ten." Max would usually just throw out a few sporadic numbers, well I guess he really wanted to watch a show because he counted 1-10 perfectly! You never know what these kids have up their sleeves.

Max started school last month too. We have been going to a Mommy & Me school for 1 hour Mon and Wed, and then an opening came up at the school he will be going to preschool next year for their toddler program. So he goes Tues, Thurs for 3 hours a day and loves to "go learn" as he says!

And last but far from the least of it, Max has learned to say his own prayers. We have been trying really hard to say prayers at meal times and started family prayer at night. Max has always been good about folding his arms when we say prayers, and now has started to join with us. So now he says his own prayers... here is a wonderful example of the simple gratefulness of a child at the end of the day, Max: "Heavenly Father, Thank you for day, Thank you mommy, daddy and Pippin, Thank you for big house, thank you for race car for nighty night. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Out of the mouth of babes :-)
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Craft It forward

I thought this would be fun, and maybe get my brain out of the pregnant haze :-)

The first three people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It’ll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it’s going to be.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!Who’s in?
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Jamaica

Back In October we decided that we were going to take a trip; one last hoorah before being "tied down" with two kids. So we have been trying to find a vacation to go on. We decided to go to New York and were about to book it in January, and then decided it was too cold. So here we are in February, with a week of vacation time and no vacation plans. We even found a babysitter for Max (thanks Grammy, Abuela and Ari :-). We were going to stay local and save some money, but it was cold and rainy for the whole week. So Friday 2/13 was technically the first night of vacation... still no vacation plans. Well we found a crazy deal to Jamaica leaving Sunday night....and we went! Just the TWO of US! It was sunny, beautiful and relaxing!. Here are a bunch of pics of what we did...some days we did nothing too! Oh...they are not all rated G in terms of modesty...being in a foreign land I went with a two piece bikini and a very pregnant belly :-)This is Y/S Falls. There were four different tiers with pools in each.

Brian on the rope swing!

In the waterfall!

Jumping!...I was careful :-)Romance! Here At Rick's was the place to cliff dive and watch a beautiful sunset. Brian is about to jump 35 feet into the water...the photographer (me) missed the actual jump!

Eating the local cuisine.Snorkeling in the reef!Another day lounging at the beach at Margaritaville!

And here we are ready to come home. We spent 5 days in Jamaica and had a wonderful time, but we could NOT WAIT to come home to Max! The vacation doesn't officially end until Tuesday, so we are planning on a Disneyland trip on Monday to spoil Max since we missed him so much. Then we will settle in and prepare for life with two kids... and we thought Jamaica was an adventure!
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We're Back!

Ok, life has been crazy!!!! So I am going to throw a few pictures and a quick timeline to bring us back to the blogging world!Back to 2008, we had a wonderful Christmas! Here is Max standing in front of his "booty"!After New years we went on a 2 day trip to Disneyland to celebrate Brian's 30th B-Day!

Grandma Bell passed away on Jan 17th and the next day we drove out to UT spent a week out there. We brought Brian's brother back down with us for the funeral. While In UT Max and his cousin Ammon were the best of friends and we got to go sledding.We came back on the 23rd and went to the funeral on the 24th. Here is Brian's family all together...it was a beautiful service. After the funeral Brian, Max and I went to a farewell party for my brother Chris who will deploy to Iraq in a few weeks.

*** I don't have pics for it yet, but on Jan 31st we celebrated my grammy's 80th B-day with a huge celebration at the Mandalay Hotel. It was wonderful to have everyone come together, and it was nice to sit back and enjoy the party we have been planning for the past 6 months! Then on Feb.1 I enjoyed a quiet B-day watching the Superbowl, but I guess I should have wished for some better referee calls, and better play by the Cardinals because they lost :-(

And now we are up to speed! Hopefully life will be calm for a little while, but I am sure I will find something to blog about :-)

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