Welcome to the world, Louise Olivia (Lou)

Brand new baby girl.

I will never forget this moment, when I got to hold Lou for the first time. (My head looks huge, I know..ha!) 

Dad and Lou.

Just a few hours old.

Just a few hours old and haven't had a bath yet.

So fresh and so clean.

Ready to go home.

It was snowing out...better wear a hat.

Going home after one day in the hospital.

Here we go.

Gray and Lou. Gray loves his sister so much!

Sorta looks like he has her in a headlock. He may have meant to do that, who knows?

Sweet girl.

The SWEETEST.

Love my girl...

and my boy, of course.

Grandpa Mike and Nanny Toni

Grandpa Jim and Nanny Neetie

World's #1 Uncle and Aunt!

LOUISE OLIVIA 

 April 8th, 1:15pm, 7 lbs 13 oz, 21 5/8"

 IT'S A GIRL! That is what Drew screamed when Louise arrived after the most intense 15 minutes of my life. For some reason, both of my labors have had some complications and been pretty stressful. Luckily, the outcome both times has been a healthy, happy, perfect baby. 

Drew and I were both certain we were having a boy, so when Drew announced it was a girl, I was a speechless, emotional mess. I must have said a million times I really didn't care what I was having because I had enjoyed having a boy SO much. But the truth is, I really wanted to experience the joys of having one of each.  Lucky us.

On to the name.

 Louise was my mom's mom. She was an amazing woman. Someone I admired so much.  With 11 kids, 32 grandchildren and 54 great-grandchildren, she was committed to her family and god. She was a simple, loving, patient, wonderful woman who loved to quilt, garden, bake and pray. People like my Grandma are hard to find these days and I wanted to name my daughter Louise in memory of my lovely Grandma and all that she represents to me.

Once we finally agreed upon Louise (if it was a girl) the middle name was difficult. Louise as a middle name goes with almost anything. Louise as a first name is another story. My first thought was Olivia because then her initials would be LOU and I thought it would be cute since we were planning on calling her Lou (if it was a girl.) Drew wasn't totally sold until months later when we were getting serious about names and couldn't come up with anything. Then all of a sudden, Olivia started looking good! So, that's what we've got. Little LOU. 

On to Gray.

So far, Gray LOVES his sister so much. He constantly says "Is this Gray's baby sister? She's so tiny. She is such a cutie. She has tiny hands and a tiny mouth and tiny eyes and tiny ears and a tiny nose. Gray loves her." I'm not kidding. It goes exactly like that, usually while right in her face, which is why we ended up in the ER on Lou's 2 week birthday. 

Gray had a pretty bad cold that he passed on to Lou. We noticed she was having a hard time breathing and I went in for her 2 week check up and the doctor said "I'm sorry to tell you this, but you will need to head to the ER. I think she has RSV." Her oxygen levels were pretty low. It scared the crap out of me. THANK GOD my brother and sister-in-law were here. My brother stayed home with the boys and Kristen came with me to Children's ER until Drew could get there. What a nightmare! After a 3 hour wait in the ER waiting room with dozens of sicks kids, we got a room. They immediately stuck tubes up Lou's nose to suck out her mucus. I was shocked. I had no idea a little one could have so much snot. It was about 10 minutes of screaming at the top of her lungs and me trying to hold back tears. HORRIBLE. After they sucked her mucus out, she was able to breathe again. Her oxygen levels went back to normal. At that point they wanted us to stay so they could monitor her for a few hours while she ate, slept, etc. So around 11pm, we finally got to go home with a Bronchiolitis diagnosis. Poor girl is still having trouble breathing, but things are much better. 

Sorry, back to Gray. 

 Even though Gray LOVES his sister, he really hasn't been loving Drew or I. It has been a challenging month to say the least. Gray has gone from my sweet, calm boy to my temper tantrum throwing (about 2-3 a day), non-listening, difficult child. I'm sure something has to do with his age. Don't get me wrong he still has plenty of fun and lots of sweet moments, just not as often. I'm really glad that he isn't taking it out on Louise, but it is very hard for Drew and I. We are both really looking forward to Gray adjusting!!! Hoping it's soon! :) 

I'll leave it at that for now. Lou is 1 month old today, so I have to get her one month post up! 

 

Nursery

 Gray's fabulous painting he did for the baby.

As soon as I knew I was going to use clouds, I had to order this blabla pillow.

The same girl who made Gray's crib bedding, made this set also. She is amazing. www.makemestudio.blogspot.com The cloud in corner is from a store on etsy called The Butter Flying.

OBSESSED with these prints.

IKEA dresser, new hardware. Cheap, which means I won't feel bad when I'm tired of looking at it in a few years.

I really wanted that tree print for my bumper but the fabric isn't sold in bulk. It's from a small Swedish company that makes the best stuff. The pillows may end up in my bedroom, I love them so much. 

 It's hard to decorate a nursery when you don't know the sex of the baby. I have to admit though, I really wanted this nursery to be plain and simple and not knowing the sex kept me away from too much color. 

Black and white and gray are my favorite colors to decorate with these days (which is why Gray and the new nursery are done in them.) I wanted a soothing room without clutter. I hate clutter. It makes me nuts. I like for everything to have a place to live (OCD).

The painting above the crib was done by Gray. I will have to post a picture of a piece of art we have in our living room that we actually paid for. They are very similar. I didn't know how Gray's was going to turn out, but once we got the nursery put together, we realized we needed something on that wall. Wanting Gray to feel like he contributed, I bought him a large canvas. He LOVES to paint on canvas, something about it is so much more motivating than paper. We had to talk a few times about why we were only using one color of paint before he got started (he typically wants every color we own.) Surprisingly, he didn't complain once about having to paint only with black. He did start to wander before it was officially "done," so we put everything away and revisited it later that night.

1/2 tube acrylic paint and 1 canvas later, I got exactly what I had hoped for. A piece of art made by my favorite artist for his little brother or sister. The best part is that Gray will proudly tell you he painted it for the baby. Man, I love that kid. 

Hope the baby loves the room as much as we do! 

3 weeks and counting...CAN'T WAIT TO MEET YOU BABY!

Happy Valentine's Day (and early birthday!)

May be my favorite picture. To get Gray to look at the camera and smile is nearly impossible!

Total goofball.

"Not sure I want to get too close to that stinky breath."

"Hmmm, not too bad today!"

"Ellie's so sweet!" (Gray actually did say this and says it all of the time!)

I think they are both so sweet.

Not kidding when I say he was looking out the window at the "reindeer."

"They're eating breakfast, Mama!"

Love these two.

Looking guilty of something.

Giving Ellie a little pat on the head. Although it looks like he is being aggressive, he was being gentle.

Classic. Classic Gray, classic Ellie. haha.

Again, smiling and looking at the camera! WOAH.

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Hope you all get to spend it with the one's you love! 

Life has been a little hectic in our house since before Christmas! But things have started to slow down a little (for me and Gray) just in time to get ready for Gray's baby brother or sister. 7 weeks (or less) to go. Hard to believe. Gray is pretty excited to meet him or her. He has really grown up over the last couple of months and the thought of him every being tiny or not talking is a distant memory. But the fact is he will be 2 1/2 in 3 days. TWO AND A HALF! How is that possible? I feel like the luckiest person on earth to have had such a wonderful experience with this little man in his first 2 1/2 years.

He is such a sweet, caring, considerate boy. He is very affectionate, very sensitive, very creative and very smart. Of course, this is his mother talking so it's no surprise I would say such things! :) 

In the last week or 2, Gray has really started using his imagination. It started with marbles. We were sitting at the table eating lunch and he said "Mommy, Gray's (he likes to refer to himself in the third person) picking some fruit." And he proceeded to reach up in the air and pick some fruit and pretend to eat it. Around the same time he was pretending to shave while I was changing his diaper. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Mmmm, Gray's shaving his face." Duh. We then moved on to marbles, "Mommy, get some marbles with Gray." We both pretend to grab marbles, and put them in our pockets, roll them on the ground, put them on our plates, etc. Next it was feathers. Grabbing feathers, throwing feathers, fanning ourselves off with feathers, washing the feathers in the shower.  And the latest, which is by far my favorite is all about reindeer. Gray pretends to see reindeer outside and talks to them. He wants to "shoot hoops with them," talk about their workdays, what they are eating, if they want to come inside, etc. It's pretty much the funniest, sweetest, most interesting thing to listen too and it will never get old. 

Life is good. 

Hope you have a lovely day! 

xoxo

Basalt

Willa and Gray helped Drew build this massive snowman. It was about a foot high. ;)

"I'm OK, I'm OK!"

This picture cracks me up.

Sweetness.

Loved the river.

Willa has no fear.

Drew needed a little push.

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to go up to Basalt with our dear friends, Jon, Courtney, Willa and Emerson. Willa and Gray are about a week apart and are in the same class at school, so they had a lot to talk about! 

These pictures are from an afternoon outing in the snow. Willa and Gray had the BEST time. Unfortunately, I only took pictures this one afternoon so I have none of Courtney, myself or sweet, sweet Emerson (whom Gray is completely in love with.)

It was a great long weekend with great friends!

Celebrate Brooke!

This one's for you, TA. Ha.ha.ha.

Hostesses: Me, Alecia, BRIDE BROOKE, Toniann, Joanna

 Brooke's getting married!!!

Brooke and I go way back. We went to NAU together and although we weren't close in Flagstaff, once we both moved to Denver we became really good friends. Needless to say, I was honored to help host a shower for her! Unfortunately (for me) her wedding is 2 weeks after I am due... in Mexico, so I won't be able to make it! :( You better believe I'll be drinking margarita's all day in honor of Brooke and Travis!

 

Love you guys!