a special visitor

Last weekend we had the treat of my mom coming for the weekend. She was an incredible help to us by staying with our kids while Josh was out of town and I was in class. But more than that we had an incredible time with her. The kids absolutely loved having Grandma's full attention and love every moment. I am pretty sure Grandma read "Goodnight Gorilla" to the kids at least 50 times in 4 days.
The weekend started out with a lovely visit from my sister, brother in law, and adorable nephew. Mom and I took the kids to the beach when we had a gorgeous 80 degree day. We are so glad you came Grandma!!! Thank you Grandpa for letting her come and minister to our little family.

 This is when my mom first came. I love how Lita is fixed on Hallel. They both love each other so much!

 Grandma with the babies (4 of her 11 grandkids)

 Hallel and cousin Jeb

 Simeon and cousin Jeb

 Lita bonding with Jeb (they are 3mos apart and Lita is almost as big as him)

 Digging for sand in Sauslito

 Making sandcastles

 Simeon in action

 Intently listening to stories

 Lita Marilee with Grandma Betty Lee

 And more stories...

I had to post this one again because I love Lita's smile!

Easter Weekend

 On Saturday we had a special family day and it was terrific! It's been awhile since we have not had a busy day on Saturday so it was so nice to just be together. Josh started out the morning by a quick round of golf. We have a scholarship from our local community center so he can play 9 holes for free! It's not a great course but it was a beautiful morning and good for him to have a break from work.
The kids and I had a special egg breakfast on the bench while watching Curious George (fun for the kids since we are mean parents and don't usually let our kids watch tv:).
We all loaded up and headed off to the Larkspur family mart for the farmer's market. The kids fed the new Koi fish and ducks in the pond goldfish crackers. Got to pet baby chicks and baby ducks. Made an eco friendly Easter basket and dyed eggs in natural dye made from beet juice, cabbage, onion peel, and tumeric. And my favorite was watching the kids ride a little mini carousel merry-go-round. Simeon was wide eyed and kept saying, "get me off." While Hallel sat there taking it all in as if she was flying on her horse. It was so cute that daddy let her ride twice. She just sat there smiling the whole time. And of course, I forgot the camera:(
On Sunday we had a wonderful service with a full house at church! The gospel message was good. Our Pastor's wife took pictures so the kids could make frames for Easter. And the kids each brought home an Easter Bunny. Simeon's had the name Buster written on his tag but Hallel's didn't have a name. So Josh was asking her what she would name it. By the way, Hallel usually is scared of stuffed animals but latched on to this bunny right away. She thought and thought while Josh suggested names for the bunny and she would say "no" each time.Then she finally said, "I think her name is Ballee". Josh and I just looked at each other and smiled it was so sweet. Ballee has been coming to the playground and everywhere with us this week. Buster is a little more independent:)
We had a scrumptious Traders J's ham and potatoes for dinner with our friends, the Snearly family.They have a little girl Hallel's age and one Lita's age too. Our neighbors even brought over some homemade carrot cake! mmmmm!
It was a wonderful weekend.

Hallel's new pose is to hug Sim. As you can see he's not down with it.

honestly this was the week before Easter but too cute not to post!

Showing off their basket and natural dyed egg before we ate them :)

Elodie and Lita chillin' together (they were both 9lb chunks at birth).

 Hallel and Eleonora gigling and double scootin'.

 "Real" pictures by my photographer friend Elizabeth from church (Eleanora's mom).

 The flowers in the courtyard are beautiful right now. Too bad my little handsome man won't smile for the camera.

Sweet baby Lita.

big boy simeon

Simeon's 2 yr old Curious Goerge party

 Making shamrock cards

 Too hot for his jammies

 holding baby sister

 he always asks to lay down by baby Lita and take a picture

 Already watching over baby sister

sistas

My sweet Hallel LOVES her baby sister. Every time I turn around Hallel is near Lita talking to her and loving on her. She is always asking to hold her and so curious about absolutely everything about a new little baby. Our new game is when Lita makes any noise Hallel tells us what she is "saying". It's pretty cute. I think Hallel gives Lita more attention than any of us and she even got her to smile today too.
Hallel has also recently taken great affection to her doll now named Baby Doll Lita. She rocks her to sleep and wraps her up in her blanket. She is a great little momma!
Grandma M bought the girls matching outfits and they are pretty cute together. I hope this sweet sisterhood lasts a life time.
By the way, Simeon adores her too! Every time I feed Lita he tells me that baby Lita is blowing bubbles. And he wants to hold her too.

 Josh wrapped up the kids like a baby burrito like we wrap Lita up. They thought it was hilarious.

The kids favorite pose.

baby Lita - the arrival

I know this is 3.5 weeks overdue but here is the birth story nonetheless for those of you who like the details. I was supposed to be induced on February the 1st but she ended up arriving the 7th, one day before her actual due date. I am just thankful that she wasn't 5 days late like the other two.
We had a really hard time getting in to be induced. Partly because of the nurses strike on Tuesday, Jan. 31, which backed up the normal schedule for Wednesday the 1st when we were to be induced. Also, there seems to be different standards from my OB at Kaiser in San Rafael to Kaiser in the city where they do deliveries. 

My Dr. had thought it best to schedule an induction at 39 wks because Simeon was 10lbs 8oz. So she had scheduled it more than a month in advance but KSF (Kaiser San Fransisco) saw the induction as purely a convenience for me as I had previously delivered such a large baby at 41 wks. We didn't realize this until several days of phone calls to KSF and my Dr. and being given little to no info as to what was going on just that we couldn't come in to be induced. My Dr even had me go to Petaluma for an ultra sound to check on the baby's weight. She was measuring 9lbs 11oz and we thought for sure we would get in. After many hopes rising and falling we finally realized that it was completely out of our hands and we may have to wait a long time and have another big baby. This was definitely the hardest part for me emotionally andspiritually. 

On Mon evening of the 6th, to our surprise we were allowed to go in to Kaiser at 7pm and then after getting bumped a few more times we finally got into a room and started to be induced (pitocin) around 12 am. The amazing blessing was that for the next 12hrs I was having contractions but they didn't even hurt. Josh and I got some sleep and the most uncomfortable part was the hospital bed. Unfortunately, the pitocin didn't do much so I went from a 2 to a 2 1/2 cm in twelve hrs. So the Dr decided to break my bag of water at 12:30pm on Tuesday the 7th and within minutes I was having HARD PAINFUL contractions. After about 20min of contractions I asked for an epidural and by the time they got it in it was about 1:30 pm. It was wonderful to have relief from the hard contractions but I had a weird pressure really high up in my ribs and my stomach felt like a balloon that was so tight it was ready to explode. It was like nothing Ive felt before so they gave a bit more epidural med. Then the Dr. checked me and said 10cm! I couldn't believe my ears and said, "you mean dilated to a 10." She said, "yes let's have this baby." So they wanted to see if I could push with the epidural and so we did a few practice pushes and the DR said stop pushing I need to put my gear on. Josh and I couldn't believe it. They let me feel the baby's head and within about 10 min of pushing she was out!!!! I am so thankful to the Lord for this short delivery compared to the other two! They put her right on me and she was super purple but beautiful!!!!!! She was 9lbs even and 19 3/4in (same as me but i was only 6lbs 7oz. ha!) Her name is Annalita, we call her "Lita"  and Marilee is after our mothers whose middle names are Marilyn and Lee. She is so precious and fits into our family so beautifully.