New Puppy

Chris went down to Pheonix on Thursday to pick up our new puppy. The flight didn't get in until 8:20pm so they had to stay the night and come home Friday morning. Well he's here now and couldn't be cuter. He's so fat! When he's laying down for a nap you can just see rolls all over him. The kids LOVE it! We're still struggling on the name. It's kind of between Brown Boy, Brown Bear, and Mr. Bear. I like Mr. Bear, or Mr. Brown. Kansas calls him Brown Boy though so we'll see what ends up sticking. Give it about a year and if everything goes well we should be expecting puppies!! Too fun:)

Kansas....our little ballarina! Who Knew?!?

We went to Kansas' ballet recital tonight and it was soooo cute! I can't believe I'm saying this, but my daughter actually was up dancing on stage! She looked good too. She wasn't as clumsy as I had imagined in my head. It was totally enjoyable, and the baby was pretty good too. I had to go nurse him towards the end, but once I found a nice quite spot in the back of the auditorium, I completely enjoyed the program. Little ballerinas really are the cutest thing! :)

He's Here!!

So I went in early Monday morning to be induced....there I was right on time. In my bed by 8am waiting for Dr. Connelly to come and break my water. 9 o'clock rolls by...then 10...WHAT THE HECK! I'm here because in NEED to be induced, not to hang out in this nasty gown and wait! I finally ask then nurse, who was awesome by the the way, and she said she couldn't find him. ????? Ok. 11:30 rolls around and finally Dr. Connelly shows up. I guess he'd been in the OR all morning. That's what they told me anyway. So he breaks my water and then I'm left to wait for some painful contractions so I could get an epidural. To be honest I was going to lie and say they hurt right away, because I was so worried about going fast and not having enough time to get one. But...I waited. I didn't wait too long though. I had like 2 semi uncomfortable contractions and was like, screw it! Call the anesthesiologist!...I'm ready. Oh so this is the second time I send Chris out of the room. He doesn't do well you see, with any of this stuff. Getting an epidural isn't fun, but worth it. I got the epidural in and done at 1:30. I figured any time now I'd have the baby...I came in at a 4 almost a 5 for heaven's sake. This should not take long! I was wrong. 5 o'clock rolled around and I was so frustrated with nothing happening. The nurse, Shari, came in to check me and I asked if we could start some pitocin to get things moving. She told me Dr. Connelly said if I had progressed at all on my own he didn't want to start it. uhg! So she checked and said i was almost a 6. Crap! So I'm going to be here till midnight! She said she would go call him and see what he said. 5:20- Here came Shari with a bag of pitocin for my drip. Yah! I asked what time she got off. She said, 6:00. Oh dang. I really wanted her for my delivery nurse. So I got started on a low dose of pitocin. 5:40- Here comes Dr. Connelly and Shari into the room together. What the heck is he doing here? He checks me and says, "okay! time to have a baby!" WHAT! The team of nurses gets the room ready for delivery and Dr. Connelly is all ready and the show starts. 5:50- Start pushing(oh and the epidural worked great...i felt NOTHING). Time of birth 6:00. Shari got to be there with me, and everything went beautifully. Babies weight: 10lbs. 8oz. (same as Graham!). Babies length: 21 inches. Babies name: Calvin Edward Nielsen

What a CUTIE!!!

Tomorrow's the BIG Day!!

Well I'm headed into the hospital tomorrow at 8 am to be induced. Third kid, third time to be induced! What's my deal?!? I thought I would of had this kid by now, but no such luck, so it looks like June 1st will be the day. I've had such denial about giving birth this time. I start to think about it and then quickly busy myself with something else. It's supposed to be a boy...note the blog background change:) I think that's part of the reason I'm so nervous. Graham, my first baby, was a really tough delivery and I didn't really walk away in one piece from that one. I keep linking boy with horrible delivery. I hope that's not the case tomorrow. I hope I can put pictures on here and tell you all everything went wonderfully....we'll see. Wish me luck and pray for me that this kid won't weigh as much as his older brother did!! (Oh and Graham weighed 10 1/2 pounds for those of you that didn't know)

Our little Chew Boy

Chris and I got home from the Mesa Sunday evening to find our little Chewy dead. He was on top of his dog house and jumped through the trellis fence behind his house and hung himself. It was so sad and tragic. Graham was the first one out of the truck to see his dog, and found him like that. I think that makes me feel the worst. I could not stop crying over it. I just really loved Chewy. He was my dog and He was so good. He acted just the way I wanted and never licked me or jumped on me. Maybe I'm an up tight dog owner, but I don't like to be licked and jumped on. We could let him off his lease all day and he would stay around the house. His only downfall was that he would not stop barking if Graham was outside. He LOVED Graham. He would listen to Graham better than anyone. I would have Graham go and hide and Chewy would always go look for him. Chewy only did that with Graham though. Poor Pog. He was so upset. I hope we can find us another dog as good as Chewy was. It makes me so sad to look out back and just see the one dog. Losing a pet is hard, but Chewy brought our family lots of happiness. We'll miss him so much.

I'm still here.....

I know I haven't been posting lately. I think a lot of the earlier neglect was from not feeling well in the first trimester of pregnancy. I swear I have never been so sick! I feel Great now and I'm really enjoying being pregnant. Chris and I just found out last Wed. that it's a boy! We both seemed to know already, but just got it confirmed. I'm happy for Graham to have a brother!
On a more serious note; I've been really struggling this week because of Julie's Mom passing away so unexpectedly. It's been a very emotional week for me, and I don't think being pregnant is helping much. Two reasons this has been so tough: 1. It's Julie's mom and Julie and I are very close and it kills me to see her going through this. 2. I know the relationship Julie has with her mom mirrors mine with my own mother. I can't imagine how I would make it without my mom right there. The funeral services were on Sat. and were just wonderful. All the kids did such a great job. I know their Mom would be so happy to see them all come together like that and do such an amazing job for her. I haven't really seen Julie much, but she knows I Love her and will be here for her.
I hope I can keep up on my blogging. Julie actually posted about her mom, and it's very touching...it just kills me to read it though. I hope all you guys are doing well.

Trick-or-Treat!

We had fun this year. Kansas got tired kinda fast, so we didn't stay out too long. The kids had lots of fun though. Chris and I had a fun evening after the kids went to bed. We stayed up and watched two movies back to back. It was a nice date!