2 months!

I guess I'd better give the 2 month update before she turns 3 months!

Weight: 9lb. 12oz.
Height: 21 3/4 inches

She has found her toes...as you can see :-) She LOVES to be sung too. Her favorite being the Wilson Phillips station on Pandora. She is a smiley bug. Once she looks directly at you, she usually smiles really big. She likes to play with her own hair when she goes to sleep. She has been sleeping an average of 5 to 6 hours at night. She loves her sisters and brother. They all love to hold her and like to take turns...although she is a one person at a time kind of girl. She doesn't like the others hovering when one is holding her. It's too much for her and she will let them know...and after awhile she gets tired of being passed so it's mom or dad time. She loves her dad, but likes to look everywhere but at him while he is wanting her to. As soon as he stops trying to catch her eye, she looks directly at him and gives him her biggest smile :-) So funny to watch. She doesn't like to be ignored either. One morning I put her next to Tony on the bed while he was sleeping. She was fed, burped, and changed...so otherwise in a good mood. She was being all fussy...so he opened his eyes and looked at her, she smiled, and he closed his eyes again...back to being fussy. He opened his eyes and looked at her and she stopped. It went on for quite awhile. Pretty funny. I love this little girl. She always makes me smile and she is such a good, calm baby. I couldn't ask for a better little girl to come to this family. We need calm!!

Whirlwind Weekend

Busy weekend! The 3rd of March, Mom did an open house at her home for friends and family to come visit and meet Elizabeth. It was really fun and I really enjoyed seeing so many friends and family. After the open house was over Tony and I got to go on a date! By ourselves! Since the 4th was our anniversary we went out the night before while family got to watch the kids. Can't believe it's been a year already since we got married!

 This is just a funny picture...couldn't do that twice. Spit up looking funny...I'll take it!

 The next day on our 1st wedding anniversary we were able to bless Elly. It was a beautiful day filled with love, peace, and family. Couldn't have asked for a better anniversary gift. She looked beautiful. She wore a dress and headband that my mom made. The booties were made by Tony's great Aunt Irene, and the blanket was made by Tony's Grandma. They were all just beautiful!

 The Flores group that was able to come and enjoy the day with us.

 My side of the family that was able to come be with us. I am very thankful for all who were able to be there to support us. 

 Beautiful Elizabeth. She is a doll and I absolutely love her. She is such a sweet, calm baby...I am blessed and very lucky to be her mom.

 Daddy's girl...Tony sure loves his babies :-)

I am so grateful for the priesthood. Especially the men in our family that are able to use it to bless our family. 

It was a whirlwind weekend and I loved every minute of it, even though it might take me a week to recover from all the preparations and getting through it all. We took the kids out to dinner for our anniversary also...since technically it's their anniversary too. What a great tradition we have just started. We had a great time!

1 month!

It's so hard to believe it's been a month since our beautiful Elizabeth was born! She is the sweetest baby with the cutest smile, when she lets us see it. She loves snuggling with me and her daddy...she is pretty patient when she needs something, but if you wait too long, she lets you know! She loves her sisters and brother when they hold her. She is a light sleeper (kind of hard when you try to nap right when the kids get home from school). She loves to be sung to and to be talked to. She loves to eat...a lot! She likes to make lots of laundry for me to do...blowouts are becoming a daily with her. She is almost 8lbs. and as of last week was 21 3/4 inches. She is pretty tall! She is a lightweight though. We sure do love her and I thank Heavenly Father every single day for letting me be her mom. I am very blessed!!

33...a doubler year!

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday! I spent the day eating chocolate and drinking diet pepsi, cuddling with a very cute Elly Belly while the kids were in school. I ended the day surrounded by family...Tony's and mine...having a great party, with a great dinner made by my great husband. The kids made things for me out of cardboard boxes with love and I love the homemade cards! Tony did a perfect job picking presents for me from all the kids. It was a great day!! It made me very happy!!

Elizabeth Hope Flores--Welcome to the family

Sweet baby cheeks, she is here and I am so happy!! She is the sweetest little bug I could have asked for. So here is how she got here...

Wednesday January 11th I started having contractions at 3:00 in the morning. They were only 20 minutes apart and weren't super duper strong...so it was manageable. I did that for about 5 hours. I then started to Skype with Jana...it's a good thing, because I'm terrible at timing contractions. She skyped with me most of the day as I progressed to 10 minutes apart...then 6 minutes apart. By the time I hit 5 minutes apart, I decided to lay down to see if they would go away. By then Tony had come home from work. We decided to head toward Boise to be closer to the hospital...and get Melissa settled in at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We talked about dropping her off and going to Walmart to walk around and see if things would progress even more, but as we drove to Boise, my contractions were getting a bit stronger...still not TOO bad, and coming at 3 1/2 minutes apart. We decided to call the hospital and they told me to come in and get checked. So off we went to labor and delivery...and I was at a 1 and 80% effaced. They suggested we walk the halls of the hospital for an hour and see if I could progress any more. After a LONG hour of walking...they checked me again. Still at a 1. Major sad face...they sent me home. I went back to my parents house and tried to take a warm bath...yeah, I didn't like that. It lasted 2 seconds. By the time I got out of the tub, the contractions got a LOT stronger and lasted longer and were more frequent. Tony had gone to the store to get himself some treats...so I had to wait for him. They were so intense I had a hard time sitting or laying down. It was about 11:00 at night by that time. We decided to go back to the hospital. He even ran a red light while we were driving hee hee. He dropped me off at the front while he parked...it was so cold and I got hit with a pretty bad contraction so puking in the bushes seemed to help. The nurses were a little surprised to see me back so soon. They checked me again and I had gone from a 1 to a 3 in less than an hour.

The contractions were very intense and frequent...and it took FOREVER it seemed to get me admitted. It was about 12:30 by the time they got me in a room and prepped for an epidural. Yeah...I was tired of hurting and VERY thankful for it considering how long we had to wait. I think I instantly went to sleep when it kicked in. The contractions kept coming and I SLOWLY progressed ALL night. I had to get 3 boluses with my epidural because it kept wearing off on one side of my body. That made the night seem longer when that happened. By 7:00 am I was at a 9.5, so the doc decided to give me a small dose of pitosan (spelling?) By 8 I had reached a 10 and then they decided I could try and push. The first push and the nurse said I would definitely be pushing her out because it was too dangerous for a C-section. Good news!! The doctor had left, but she called him back in because it was clear that it wouldn't take very long to push her out. They saw her head and saw tons of black hair. They asked if I wanted to see it...I was game. They wheeled in this full length mirror and I saw that and more of me than I had seen probably ever. I opted for not watching any more...You can't push with your eyes open anyway.

After a couple of pushes her head was out...He unwrapped the chord from her neck and the next contraction he said to push to see if we could get her shoulders out...and the rest of her shot out of there instantly. They cleaned her up a little, set her on me and she peed all over me...she was beautiful! I was overwhelmed with emotion. She was everything I had hoped for and I was able to deliver her the way I was supposed to! I actually did it!! She was a successful VBAC and I felt like I accomplished something incredible! To be able to share that with Tony and with my mom on each side of me, was exactly what I wanted. She was born at 8:52. She weighed 7lbs. 4oz. and was 20 1/2 inches. She is a beautiful little girl and makes me smile every day.

After I had Melissa, I ached to have another baby. I wanted her to have a sibling SO bad. I thought I had lost that chance when Joe died. I always had hope...hope for love again, hope for more family, for children. Her middle name is Hope. She fulfilled the rest of what I had hoped for. I found love and more family...she is here now. Melissa has a sister she can call her own...along with her stepsisters and stepbrother. That makes me SO happy!

What a BIG BUMP!

Yeah...I think it's time. I want this little girl on the outside of me now. I am feeling quite front heavy and it doesn't feel good. I'm 38 weeks now. Only a couple of weeks to go, bring it on! For the sake of all my joints, I am so ready! I think every in my house is ready for her to come too. Come on baby girl, lets see that cute face of yours!!! I'm not sure how she is going to get here though. I'm supposed to be trying a VBAC since I had Melissa via C-section. The doctor said he was going to let me try, but so far I've had absolutely no progress which is not good considering I am 38 weeks along. If I don't have any progress by late next week it is a good probability that this little girl is going to come by C-section also. That's ok with me as long as she gets here healthy. I'm not picky, I just want her here.

Happy New Year!! 2012

Happy New Year to us! It was just Tony, Melissa, and I for the holiday so we headed over to Mom and Dad Olsen's for some New Years festivities. As usual, Melissa crashed about 9:30. So 10 minutes before Midnight, we woke her up...quite a challenge and had her poor our sparkly Martinelli's to ring in the new year. She was SO out of it. Very entertaining watching her try to function still very sleepy. It was fun for me to be able to have Tony this year to ring in the new year. We kissed and gave sleepy Melissa a kiss on both cheeks which freaked her out a bit because she didn't know what was happening. It was very fun and low key...just the way I like it! Happy New Year! Now...to get this baby to come!