Campin Crazies!

The WHOLE family went down to Seward to Primrose campground. We camped for 4 whole days! This was Lydia's first camping experience, of course she's only 7 weeks. Adelle is older now and I have to say a little more difficult. At sleeping that is. We started off having Adelle in the tent with us, but after night #1 she ended up in the back of the jeep. That was the save all for our trip, we all slept so much better. Lydia slept in her blue rubbermade tote. She was a champ.

This is the greatest story! Aidan made a "trap" for the wild animals. A trail of pretzels leading to a trip cord that would send the animal plumeting into the river. Unfortunately it was late at night and he didn't take into account the other "wild" animals in the area, Gracie dog. This was not his intent and he was not happy. Looking back it was mean of me to laugh. Sorry Aidan.

Adelle loves her Daddy no matter how scary he is. (he wasn't trying to be)

Here is Lydia in her tote. She slept so well and was a happy camper.

The crew (and their legs)

One of our favorite places in Seward is Lowell point. We had so much fun sitting on the beach and watching the Campbell kids play in the waves. (The Olsens had gone home by then :o()

Adelle wanted SO bad to play in the water with the cousins, so we thought...why not? We took off her pants and took her to the water

and......

It wasn't as fun as she thought it would be. The water was cold. She kept lifting her feet and gesturing for Daddy to pick her up. But when he did she would want to get back down and play. Eventually she got used to it and was most adorable on the beach.

She just adores Auntie Vanessa.

This is our last morning breakfast. Don't they look so cheery?

My Love.

The last morning I was in the tent feeding Lydia. Adelle was walking around outside as I was talking through the tent to Ryan. She wanted to find me so she walked around the tent babbling for me. I started talking to her and she got so excited "talking" to me through the tent. But where was I. She LOVED when I opened the window. Mystery solved. I love my little girl and I am so glad she loves me.

Lydia did so well I am sure she will be a great camper too. Both of my girls were great, hardly any crying, they just enjoyed themselves. And I am glad that my whole family loves to camp. Did I mention it was cold and rained most of the time? We can have fun in ANY situation. I love my family.

Mmm Corn

Much Ado About Nothing

Here is Adelle kissing Lydia...

Here is Adelle playing in the drool she just landed on Lydia.


And here is Lydia wrapped in a sling as we are about to go out and water the yard. Lots has been Ado'ing around here, but nothing so exciting to blog about. The garden is growing, the kids are kidding and I am trying to keep it under control. What's keeping me sane?


Lark Rise to Candleford, the BBC series!


It may actually be making me more insane since I am now an adict and can't get enough, and can no longer distinguish between reality and my desired reality. It is my daily getaway into a world of talking people and fun plots. (Keep in mind my husband is gone and I am taking care of two babes. Need I say more)

Lydia's First Photo Shoot

My friend Nickie Mullin took these pictures. She's amazing, check out her blog at www.nickiejeanphotography.blogspot.com

Funny...

I love when something happens that you don't realize is absolutely hilarious till after the fact. Then you look back and can't stop laughing. (I have to first say Ryan told me NOT to post this on the blog, but since he never actually reads my blog, just looks at pictures.....I think he'll skim right past this one.)

Here's the story.

When I was in labor and we had arrived at the birth center, our wonderful Midwife Debbie had us go for a 30 min walk to get things going. We went on a rather humiliating walk in a semi-busy part of town with people walking and driving by, while I was having regular contractions. I could only imagine what people thought. Anyway at one point there was a punk kid on the other-side of the road just behind us. I noticed him briefly and got a "danger" vibe from him, but then a contraction came on and I forgot about him.

That was that. So I thought.

Later that night, after Lydia was born and my Mom and sisters were there visiting us, Ryan gave them the run-down of the night. He mentioned going for a walk and a punk kid who he felt the need to protect me from.

Again, that was that.

Then later as I was writing this whole experience in my journal and I started to write about the kid, I realized I had never asked Ryan what was going through his mind at this point. He was sitting next to me, so I asked him. His response: "I got a bad vibe from him so I looked around on the ground and made sure I could always grab something to throw at him if I needed to." This sunk in. I asked him, "like a rock?" "yes, like a rock". Then suddenly I pictured myself, bent over through a contraction and my husband chucking rocks and sticks across the street at this punk kid who intended us harm. I couldn't stop laughing. He was really thinking this, keeping his eye on the ground every step of the way. Looking for rocks.

My Hero!

The Happenings at the Marley's...

It has been a bit of a mad-house around here lately. I wonder how other new Mom's do it because I often feel like everything is falling apart faster than I can put it back together. Not in a horrible way, just in a the house gets messy, the kids are both crying, and we have to do this and this and this....all at the same time. Along with having a new baby, which is wonderful, we are also preparing our foster girl to leave for Job Core on Tuesday. So here's a bit of what's been going on.

Adelle meeting her sister for the first time. She was very interested.

Kisses...

and cuddles...

My Mother the life saver. She has been the best Mom/Grandma a person could ask for. She helps and offers to help, and so perfectly holds and gives attention to both babes. It has meant so much to me to share these things with her, and to hear her wisdom. I feel just as young as my kids as I become her "kid" again.

And isn't she beautiful?

Here's babe number 1. She is adjusting well, it's been hard for her to see me sitting so much, nursing, but luckily Daddy has been around to give attention. And she really loves her sister, she is concerned for her when she cries, wants to kiss, hug and pet Lydia. It's adorable to see that maternal side come out of a girl so young.

I think one of the greatest things I have done in life is to give these two girls to each other, best friends for life.

Meet Baby Lydia

It's been pretty crazy-wonderful around here :o). Here's a last pregnancy shot, me at 39 weeks 2 days. ALMOST done!!!

I went into labor the morning of the 12th, two days before my due date. This was my Grandmother Louine Bromely's birthday, and I was begging her to see that Lydia be born on that day. She came through for me. The contractions took a little time to get going but we went to the Birth Center at 6:30 pm ready to NOT get sent home. (My labor with Adelle totaled 4 days and 4 nights. I was scared to death this would happen again).

The midwife Debbie had us go for a walk to get the contractions stronger since I was only dialated to a 4. When we got back to the center Debbie came into our room with a breast pump (a contracting womans worst enemy. I remember this torture device and wanting to die from it with Adelle) Luckily when she saw my contractions and checked Lydia's heart rate, which was a little high, she decided we needed to give Lydia a break. She let me get in the water. Ahhhhh. My contractions were strong and very effective, so I managed to escape the breast pump torture. Debbie even guessed this baby would be here soon so if I wanted to have my sisters and Mom be here for the birth, or just after, they should be here around 9:30 pm. That was VERY shocking to me as it was only about 8:50 and I had no clue I was moving along that fast. Very exciting.

Soon after this she broke my water, and then after that Debbie informed us that I had an anterior lip. Basically a part of the cervix was not dialating as it should making the baby unable to pass through it. Not that you have this option, but this is something you DON'T want in natural childbirth. This slowed the process down quite a bit, when I should have been pushing I had to wait through the pain hoping that changing positions would move it naturally. After that didn't work Debbie suggested holding it back while I pushed Lydia past this. This was the most painful part of the whole birth, but luckily it worked.

Baby Lydia came out after 10 minutes of pushing and was born at 10:40 weighing 7 lbs 4 oz at 20". She looked up at me the moment she came to my chest and just stared at me.

My Mom said this baby had more vernix on her that she had ever seen any baby have. I totally agree.

The moment she was born we called in the "Female Support Team"and it was SO wonderful for me to have them there. Not only were they so supportive and excited they did all the baby holding while the other stuff went on. Having them there was something that lifted my already high spirits, it was so much fun to hear them talk to each other about anything and everything. Getting stitched up was made pleasant as I was distracted by all the talk about Lost.

My sisters Vanessa and Melissa, and My Mom Pauline, whom Lydia Pauline is named for.

Ryan was the best coach I could have ever asked for. I squeezed his hands and arms and put him through the ringer. That is the closest he will ever come to the pain of childbirth.

I am glad I married this man.

My Mother said she looks like me as an infant and I agree. She also weighed exactly what I did. Pretty niffty.

She has been the best baby so far. Easy to comfort, hardly cries and sleeps a LOT. We love her to death and are so excited for her and Adelle to meet later tonight.

And that is our new family addition. Keep checking in on us as she gets cuter and cuter :o)

Billy Curringtong Baby!!!!!

THIS is Billy Currington. He's a country singer who came up to Anchorage on Tuesday and Dad, Vanessa, Devin and I went to see him in concert. But before I talk about the concert I want to give you some back ground.

THIS is my husband. Ryan. See the resemblance? When Ryan and I were dating we broke up a "few" times. The last time we broke up he broke my heart, that was when I realized I really loved him and was ready commit. Go figure. Anyway it was at this same time Billy Currington became more well known and started coming out with music vidoes that would steam up your bathroom mirrors. Or bedroom mirrors, eh hem. Since I already missed Ryan it made watching these vidoes even more painful and I developed a crush on Billy. But Billy never called, and eventually Ryan did, so I said "why not" to Ryan and "your on your own" to Billy. I was very happy to have my sweetheart back.

But still deep down I have a little crush on Billy, which I don't feel too bad admitting because it's because to me he looks like Ryan. So when we went to the concert I couldn't help but drool a little. (Ryan was on the slope so I've been without a man for a long long long long long long time)

There is my confession. Here is the fun we had.

Before the concert we went to Sacks Cafe for dinner and that was wonderful Here's us Waiting for it to start. The room was like 100 degrees, and it wasn't just me in my pregnant body, EVERYone there was hot and sweaty. Accept for that it was a great concert.

As we were driving everyone back to their cars we came upon these freaky masks in the dark. Well you can't pass something like this and NOT take a picture right? We had no clue what they were for, but they were spooky spooky.

Here's us acting dead.

Here's us acting spooky. My spooky and dead rendition may look very similar, but really.......they are. I just couldn't stop laughing.

It was a GREAT night!!!!!

Trying Pig Tails...

It's hard trying trying to think of new ways to "style" Adelle's hair. This one's pretty cute :o) Any other ideas?