Trips to Idaho

We have made a lot of trips up to my parents house in Idaho this summer.  It has been nice to have the help and just get away and take a break when needed.  Going from one child to two has been a large adjustment especially since Nate has been busy with his dealership.  I love Idaho and it is a place that is almost stuck in time.  I love that there are not high demands when we go up and that my family loves to play with my kiddos especially Izzy.  She loves it as well.  She does keep everyone busy.  Every time we make it up there and Izzy begins to run around and climb on everything my dad will chuckle and comment on how extremely busy she is.  She can keep everyone on their toes!  

One of the great things about Idaho is that most of my family still lives in that area so we get to see the Great Grandparents.  Siena met both Grandma and Grandpa Olenslager about three week old.  She also got to snuggle with Grandma and Grandpa Merrell.  I love my family and how they like to be involved in our life's.  

 One of the weekends that we made it up I took some pictures of my beautiful girls in some matching shirts that my friend makes.  We got some good pictures but it was hard keeping Izzy in one spot for too long.  

 (I love this photo a little glimps into the future)

Most of our trips up my brother and his girlfriend came up with us.  It was so nice to spend time together.  Izzy also LOVES her uncle Jakey.  He tosses her around and catches her when she jumps from the couch.  Siena also got some quality snuggle time in with Marcee.  They are so great to have around and spend time with.  I got to spend some quality time with Marcee while floating the river with Izzy.  It was nice to get to know her better and have some girl time.  

The middle of August we went up to Idaho to attend the Burley fair.  To say I loved the fair growing up is and understatement.  There is nothing better than a fresh scone, greasy burger with tator tots, and people watching while downing a homemade maple bar.  I also really wanted to take Izzy so she could see the animals.  I don't know if it has changed over the years or if my mind doesn't remember it correctly but there wasn't a good variety of animals.  Other than farm animals.  But we still had fun.  

 We always take Diesel up so he can run around and enjoy the fresh air and freedom.  He loves it but doesn't like that he has to stay outside (I love that he stays out I think it is good for him).  He occasionally pouts when he is blocked off the deck when we are eating and it is funny to see what he does.  

Great Grandma Carmela's 100th Birthday

On July 22nd (her actual birthday is the 24th) we got to celebrate our Great Grandmothers 100th birthday.  This lady is amazing!  She still has a fiery personality for being 100 years old.  She is an amazing woman and has accomplished so much in her life.  Starting off by bringing her family here from Italy.  I was excited but a little nervous to take Siena to her birthday party, but I could not pass it up.  This is a very rare occasion.  I wanted to get a picture of her with our whole family.  It was fun to see her legacy.  

Izzy and Avery of course wanted to be outside and play in and around the water.  Here are a few pictures of the cute girls. 

Siena's Birth Day

It started early the morning of July 10th Nate and I got ready and headed to the hospital to be induced one week before my actual due date.  I have to say that I really enjoyed that.  Since I am such a planner it was nice to have everything in order and done just the way I wanted.  Nate was feeling very anxious the day prior and I really didn't have any nervous feelings or anxiety until they were about to do the IV.  The process started at about 7:45 am with the pitocin to start regular contractions and we were off.  Thing went very smooth.  I labored until about 12:45 then asked for the epidural before my water was going to be broken.  They were so fast before I could think twice about it the doctor was in and preparing me for the epidural.  Luckily I had an amazing nurse that was there for me the entire time.  Because Nate went a little pail and nervous about the epidural (he doesn't do well around needles) so I gave him permission to leave and grab some lunch while they were doing it.  He was quickly relieved and headed out of the room as fast as he could.  While he was gone they got me all set up, and as soon as I got repositioned back in bed she wanted to check my progress, and while doing so my water broke.  It was all really good timing.  At that time I was hoping that things would go super fast and I would be done in 2 hours or less....  Wishful thinking.  Although things continued to progress it wasn't as fast as I had hoped.  I at this point in time was starving and suffering from a headache and nausea and was ready to be done with the process.  They came in and decided to do internal monitoring on the baby to monitor the contractions with more accuracy.  After getting set up they told me that my contractions could be stronger so they upped the pitocin to push things along.  Sure enough that did the trick.  Shortly after I was dilated to a 10 and ready to go!  Once again my delivery was so easy.  It was funny because the doctor just sat at the bottom of the bed chatting it up with Nate about our video camera for the first 5 minutes waiting for the pediatric nurse to arrive.  As soon as she was there I pushed a total of three times and Siena was here.  She was absolutely perfect!  I could not have asked for anything better. I got to enjoy her first moments in life up close and personal.  I loved every moment of her crying and me crying, and Nate crying.  We got to snuggle her and talk to her and take in this very special moment in life.  

(As a side note we seem to always have some sort of technical difficulty when it comes to taking pictures.  With Izzy we for got the nice camera, and with Siena our nice camera would not focus automatically so a lot of our pictures are blurry.  Sad but oh well)

When the took us to our post pardom room Nate got to give Siena her first bath.  It was nice that I was there to watch.  Big sister was also there, but she didn't want anything other than mommy.  So she just sat in my lap and played with the Ipad.  We struggle getting her to take a decent picture, but she was also going through a lot as well so I didn't push it.  

I am so happy to be the mother of two healthy, happy, and very good girls.  I am so blessed.  Siena has been a very good eater from the beginning and has passed all of her test with flying colors.  So after the 24 hours at the hospital we wanted to come home and start settling in.  Not to mention you don't really get to rest at the hospital.  They are always coming in to check on me or her every hour to two hours.