Christmas Preparations and Christmas Eve

Christmas has been really exciting this year because Bailey is beginning to understand the season a little better. We went to Hobby Lobby one morning and she stood in front of a nativity set for about 5 minutes in awe of the whole scene. It was so fun to see people stop and smile at Bailey's excitement. She has learned who Joseph, Mary, Jesus, camels, Wisemen, Shepards, and Santa are, the use for stockings, the love of Christmas trees, excitement for presents, and the joy of seeing Christmas lights. We went to our annual ward Christmas party and Bailey and Maddie met Santa. Amazingly once again Bailey had no problems sitting on Santa's lap. She is just curious as you can tell by her face. Bailey enjoyed olives and a lovely green cupcake! We also went shopping for our Christmas tree. Although it is getting more expensive, it sure is a fun tradition! On Christmas Eve we spent the day together as a family. As odd as it may seem, we went on a picnic for lunch. (Odd because it is so warm on Christmas Eve when Dave and I are so used to it being cold.) Bailey was so excited to be in the little house and to look out the window.
Bailey, Maddie, and I went on several walks in Decmeber. One walk, Bailey decided she would collect several treasures in the bottom of her stroller. The treasures included "cone pines" as she called them, acorns, leaves, and who knows what else. We decided to make a snowman out of her treasures and it is still hanging on our Christmas tree. It was so fun to see how excited she got. She even colored the face of the snowman.
We also got a 1000 piece puzzle which Dave ended up doing pretty much by himself while I worked on Pajamas. The puzzle is also a tradition I enjoy and hope to continue.
The night of Christmas Eve we read the nativity story, drove around the neighborhood looking at lights, and openend our Christmas pajamas. I think Bailey's favorite gift of the whole season was her pair of Lightning McQueen slippers. She plays with them every day. It was so fun to see how excited she was about her slippers and PJ's.
Sorry these pictures are all over the place because I do not really like this new set up. Maybe I am doing something wrong but the images once they are downloaded are just a bunch of letters, numbers, and sybmols?!? So enjoy the random assortment of pictures. The one of Maddie is just showing how fun her hair is. I can't believe that at two months I can do her hair in two pigtails! I love it and it is still red!

Blessing and Tea Party

December has been a fun and busy month. The first weekend of December our parents came into town for Maddie's blessing. It was such a delight to have both sets of parents here. We had a lot of fun. We had a girls day out shopping at the fabric store and a guys day hanging Christmas lights. Dave blessed Maddie on Sunday at church and it was a beautiful blessing. I find it interesting that with both girls service was mentioned. Maddie did a good job not crying but managed to spit up and poop out in her blessing dress but thankfully after church was over (at least the poop out and thankfully spit up is white!!). Thanks to Sherri for the dress, the bow and the bracelet. It is truly such a blessing to have such beautiful daughters.
We also had a Grandma and Bailey tea party. Bailey was so excited to wear all of her jewelry and her hat and skirt. She also was quite excited for all of the mini treats, she started eating them before we even started. We have the best Grandmother's in the world. We couldn't ask for better examples for our girls. Thank you for all that you do for Bailey and Maddie.

A Busy First Two Weeks of Life

Today was supposed to be my official first day of being alone with the girls. Incredibly, one of my great friends asked if she could take Bailey for the day. She is wonderful. Thanks Erika!! It has given me a lot of time to relax and wow, yes, even blog! We have had so much fun with Grandma and Papa here. Bailey and Mom have been spoiled for the past week and a half. Thank you so much to Mom and Dad Jackman for coming to visit. You were such a big help. Here are just a few of the fun things that we have been up to:
We went to a Pumpkin Patch with Bailey and she loved picking out a pumpkin for Bailey and a pumpkin for Maddie. We went to the Temple with Grandma and Bailey loved the water most (of course). We made sugar cookies and carved/painted pumpkins. There were fun trips to the Butterfly Museum and the Blue Bell Factory. It has been a great few weeks.

She is here!

Well our precious bundle of joy is here! We are so excited for our new addition and are enjoying all the cuddle and snuggle time we can. To start, we would like to thank all of our family and friends who have prayed with us throughout this pregnancy for a successful VBAC because it was! We are so grateful to not have to worry about the C-section recovery.
For details: Madelynn Jo Bishop was born on Tuesday October 19th at 5:38am. She was 7lbs. 10.8oz and 20.5 inches long. If you are not interested in details just skip to the pictures!
I had been having pre-term labor since Saturday night and needless to say it left me quite sleep deprived. On Monday night harder contractions started at about 11pm then by midnight they were coming around 2-5 minutes apart. We decided to call the hospital and let them know. They said to come in so we got all of our things and headed out the door. (This was such a surreal moment. It happens in movies all the time but it is strange when it is really happening!) Before we left obviously we had to get someone to our house to watch Bailey. Oddly enough all the people we had lined up for the evening were deep in sleep. Thankfully our neighbor was able to come on short notice and sleep at our house.
We were admitted into the hospital and I was at a 3! Yipee, all on my own. I felt so blessed. The doctor said he would not start me because we were trying for a VBAC. We got all situated and I started moving quite quickly. I got an epidural and it was wonderful despite the violent shaking. Luckilly the shaking went away after about an hour. A few hours later I was at a 7. Throughout this the doctor came in a few times worried because Maddie's heart rate was up and down. However, she calmed down again and things were going well. At about 4:45am the doctor came in and my labor had slowed a lot. I was to an 8 but wasn't making much progress. He said if I didn't have the baby in one hour he would do a C-section because there were too many variables. I prayed and prayed and prayed. Miraculously at 5:38am she came into the world crying. This is one of my favorite moments as a new parent is to hear her first cry.
She is a very healthy and content baby. She has dark red hair, it almost looks copper. When we were getting her dressed to go home I put on a pair of socks which were 3 month size and they were too short!! Our little girl is really long and skinny.
Bailey is doing well with Maddie. She is quite protective of her and worries when Maddie cries. Gratefully she is not that interested in her at the moment which makes things a little easier. She loves to give her kisses and point out her different body parts. I think her favorite is her belly button. It is so fun to be a family of four. We again are so grateful for the prayers and support of wonderful family and friends. As so much has happened in this past week, I plan to do more posts in the next few days when Grandma and Papa take Bailey out on daily adventures. More to come in the next few days.

Our little girl is growing up

Well, this has been a long time coming and I figure since our little one is due in three days that I should catch up before it gets too crazy around here.
Our precious Bailey turned 2 on Thursday September 23rd and we had a great time celebrating her. She actually made it through opening more than one present and we feel so grateful for the generosity of friends and family. Her actual birthday was full of family fun including a yummy breakfast of her favorite: waffles with fruit and yogurt, a trip to the zoo just Mom and Bailey, swimming and splashing in the back yard with Daddy, and a yummy dinner of pigs in a blanket. There is no better way then that to spend your 2nd birthday :).

Friday night we had a mini birthday party for Bailey. She had a tea party with two of her great friends, Kara and Evelyn. They were so cute and were very careful about the water filled cups. Bailey did take one of the containers full of yogurt covered raisins over to a little corner as if to say, "These are mine and no one else can have them" only to come back a minute later and share with her friends. She and Kara enjoyed the birthday cake and ice cream especially when they were able to eat it off the floor! Thanks again to our good friends for supporting our first attempt at a birthday bash. We had a great time.

Turning two also means going to the doctor. She was an angel the whole time. Usually she screams from the moment we walk into the office until we leave. She only cried briefly when she got her shots. Her stats are as follows: Height 36 3/4" 98%, 28 lbs. 68% so she is tall and skinny! Everything looks great.

Bailey has grown and changed so much over the last few months. She is turning into our little toddler. She is not our little baby anymore. She has begun in the last few weeks to speak in complete sentences, stringing several sentences together. Some of our favorite phrases, words, and Baileyisms right now are "Oh goodness....", "What's Daddy doin", upadupt (I have no idea how to spell it but that is how she says elephant), "Stop Bailey stop" (yes she says this to herself!), "Sit by You" when she wants you to sit down by her, she fills in words to some of her favorite songs such as Scripture Power, I love to see the Temple, Sunbeam Song, I'm so glad when daddy comes home, and Miss Mary Mack. She continues to read to herself while walking in circles. She loves going for walks and swinging on the swings. When we go swing she will ask me to push Maddie's swing as well (her little sister's name).
Because her sister will soon arrive, we had to make some changes to the bedroom situation. Bailey is now in what was the guest room and has been sleeping in a big girl bed for about two weeks. The transistion was not an easy one for any of us but she is doing much better. Currently she is kicking the wall and singing to herself instead of sleeping, but hey, she is still in bed! That is progress.
This last week or so we have been trying to spend a lot of quality time with Bailey and perhaps spoiling her a little more then we should. As I realize the one on one time with her is going to be gone soon it makes me reflect on how much love I have for her. Despite her funny tantrums she is such a sweetheart and melts my heart. She is truly such a joy to us and we are so grateful that she joined us two years ago.

Well, I was so excited to finally upload pictures for all to see with our "working camera" but there is something wrong with the connection to the computer. Oh dear, maybe I will give up on cameras forever. So, sorry this update will just have to do for now.

Finally somewhat of an update

I know that it has been a long time coming sorry! There has been a ton going on. I finally got a new camera and as of a few weeks ago, it stopped working! I think I have a curse. I cannot get the images off the card so once we get a new camera hopefully we can put some fun pictures on here. Here are a few updates for you:

Bailey continues to grow and is loving every minute of our hot summer. Her favorite things are to color in our back patio with sidewalk chalk, swing (which she calls "wing"), eat gogurt on her "sit", go for walks, and play with any kind of water. She is quite the water girl we are so excited for our pool to open. She is talking much more now but continues with her Bailey talk with a few words we understand mingled in here and there. She is a true joy!

We are expecting baby #2 and just found out on Friday that we are having another girl. We are excited for Bailey to have a sister. She is due Oct. 14 so please help us out and pray that a hurricane doesn't come around again! I can't afford to dig fence post holes after being a week late again!

Here are some random pictures for your enjoyment. I was able to get a few pictures off my camera before getting a lens error. We have planted our garden (this is our attempt at an herb garden), Bailey loves to read her books on her reading blanket from Grandma, Bailey's hair is getting longer so I have to get more creative, and life is just good here in Houston.