Molly's First Bath

Well I of course had to take pictures of Molly and her first bath. As most of you Moms out there know, the first bath isn't all that wonderful because the baby can't be submerged into the water. It is always an experience to re-learn something that you haven't done in over two years!

Here we are getting ready. Obviously Molly isn't happy about this. Lilly really wanted to help with anything that she could. She is such a good big sister.

After the bath. Now she is as happy as can be!

Lilly loves the camera, so we of course have to take a picture any time it gets turned on

Happy Molly

Coming Home

We were so excited to finally bring Molly home from the hospital. Lilly was just as excited even though I'm sure she wasn't aware of the implications before!

Getting dressed to go home!
Ready to go in her car seat

Lilly and Molly. Can you tell that they are both excited!?!

INTRODUCING...

Molly Lynn Haws
7 lbs 11 oz
21 inches
10:38 pm on December 26th

Welcome to the World

On Friday the 26th I rolled out of bed and headed to the hospital for one of my usual non-stress tests. I didn't even shower that morning, number 1 because it was early, and number 2 because I figured it would be like any other test and I would be home in an hour. I left the house at about 7:30 and promptly got stuck on our street because of all the snow. I luckily was able to get the car going and made to the hospital safely. I went in for my test and everything started off as normal. After about a half hour the nurse came back and explained that the doctor on call had looked over my strip (which shows the baby's heart rate) and had expressed that there were a few too many dips in the heart rate and so he wanted to get an ultrasound to see what was up. They originally thought I could just have low fluid levels. They put the order for the ultrasound in at about 8:45am. Then I sat hooked up to the monitors and waited and waited and waited some more. They didn't come and get me for the ultrasound until 12:00 pm! I didn't care about having to wait so long. At least I had a book to read, my Nintendo to play, and TV to watch, and I didn't have to worry about Lilly because she was at home with her daddy. I went for the ultrasound and the tech thought that everything looked great and the fluid levels were fine. After the ultrasound I headed back upstairs to labor and delivery to await official results of the ultrasound. I once again sat in a room and waited for about another half hour. (by this time I had been doing a "non-stress test" for about 4 1/2 hours) The nurse came in and we chatted just a little more about things and then she went to call the doctor. They almost sent me home and then were going to call me if they needed me to come back but the doctor thought it would be a good idea to hook me back up to the monitors again for another 1/2 hour or so and then see what was happening. So I got hooked up again and waited some more. After about another hour the nurse decided that the doctor really should see things and got him to look again at my strip. The nurse just said that she felt like things really weren't on the up and up and really wanted to make sure everything was fine. After about 7 hours of doing a "non-stress test". The doctor came in and explained that everything looked fine and there really wasn't much to worry about. The only thing they were nervous about was the drops in heart rate. The doctor said he didn't know if the baby was just grasping the umbilical cord or if it was possibly wrapped around her somewhere. The doctor pretty much said that it was up to me. I had to decided weather we should just induce or wait and see on Monday. The nurse was obviously a little nervous about the tests and I said that I was ready to go, especially since I had been on bed rest for 5 weeks. The doctor and nurse agreed and decided to check things out. Luckily I was already dilated to a 3 and about 50% effaced. So all of a sudden we were having a baby. I called Aaron, he packed up Lilly and took her to my sisters house and then he came to the hospital. By 4:00 pm I was on pitocin and ready to go. The nurse thought I was a little too smiley so every time she came in she just upped the dosages. The problem was that I was kind of happy the entire time anyway! By 9:00 pm the doctor came in and looked at my strip. Every time I had a contraction Molly's heart rate would go way down, and then come up. They decided to watch a little longer but were sort of preparing for an emergency c-section, especially if I didn't progress fast enough. I was only at a 5 by this point. At 10:15 pm they checked again and said I was at a 7. They were all getting pretty nervous by this point (and so was I). Finally at 10:30pm I told everyone that I was ready to go and by 10:38 pm Molly made her appearance. She ended having the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck! We were certainly blessed to have the nurses we had that really took the time to make sure they felt comfortable with my tests. I think things could have ended much differently otherwise.

Mommy and Molly

Lilly inspecting her new sister. They get along great so far

Daddy and Molly (they look alike)

April and Molly

Heather, Meridian, and Molly

Christmas 2008

Our Christmas began at 2:30 am when Lilly decided that she needed to get up and eat dinner! I was feeling unusually generous for that time of morning and we got up and made her eggs and toast. She then decided that she was good to go for the day. I of course was not ready to go and so we tried to convince her that Santa can't come visit if she isn't asleep in bed. We let her stay up a little longer and finally got her in bed again at 3:30 am. Thankfully she slept until 8:30 the next morning! When she woke up we all got out of bed and headed into the living room to see what Santa had brought. Lilly sure must have been a good girl this year! The first thing she saw was a baby stroller and carrier. She went directly to it, grabbed it and said "bye mom!" We tried to tell her that she had more presents to open and she just said, "No Presents!" So we just let her go. It didn't take long before she came back and decided that yes she did want to open more presents! We had a great morning! It was our first Christmas alone and we couldn't have enjoyed it more. It was especially nice to be able to focus on Lilly one last time before Molly comes home. We enjoyed the day (which seemed to pass far to quickly) and then got ready for Christmas dinner. My brother J.R. came and had dinner with us. I must have done my job because everyone was so full we didn't even get to dessert or even think about it until almost 1:00 am! We had a great dinner and then played Risk with my brother for a majority of the evening. We had a wonderful time! Thanks for visiting J.R.


Lilly checking out her stocking

Leaving with her new stroller

Opening her Mr. Potato Head. She loves to play with it!

Opening her new dress up clothes. What better way to get the make believe and imagination going!

Aaron's new watch. It has a cool orange face on it!

I got a Nintendo DS for Christmas! I also got Brain Age and Crossword. It is really fun!

One of Lilly's new outfits that she got from her Grandma and Granddaddy Haws. We sure love it!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve began with a relaxing day at home. We just enjoyed our time together and relaxed the day away while the snow fell outside. Later in the day we went to my sister April's house for dinner and fun. We had a great time and were even more excited to spend time with my brother J.R. We had a wonderful dinner and then opened presents that the cousins got each other. Lilly got a Barbie from her cousins and she loves it. She hardly ever puts it down. After April's house we came home and opened our Christmas P.J.'s. Lilly loved it and wanted to open more presents. We got ready for bed, put out our cookies for Santa and headed off to bed.

Our Christmas Cookies. I think Santa will be really full from eating all of those.

Putting out the Christmas cookies

Look how excited Lilly is. I am so excited for her

Her Christmas P.J.'s and of course the Barbie that she won't put down.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We took Lilly to see Santa in the mall. She loved it and even talked to him this time. That is a big step up from just staring at him the whole time. She even told him that she wanted some ponies for Christmas! Wow, she is getting so big!

Christmas Cookies

We love to make sugar cookies on the holidays. This years Christmas cookies turned out especially nice! Of course all that Lilly really cared about was eating the frosting and the candy that goes on the cookies. I think through the course of the night she decorated 2 cookies with about 8 inches of frosting on each and a whole bunch of candy packed on top.

Lilly showing off the beautiful frosting all on her mouth. We eventually just had to give her her own spoon for decorating because she was trying to eat the frosting right off the knife.

Our pretty cookies. The stocking with our names were for Santa!

Yummy Frosting!

Aaron having fun decorating

Meeting Santa

Last night was our ward Christmas Party and Lilly was really excited because we told her that Santa would be there to visit all the kids. This year she has become really excited about the whole Santa thing and anytime she sees him in the mall she runs up and yells "Hi Santa!" It is just so cute and fun to see how excited she gets about it. When the time came to sit on Santa's lap I wasn't sure if she would actually do it. Well she did it! She wouldn't actually talk to him, she just stared the whole time, and she was really excited about the candy cane he gave her. When she got off his lap she thanked Santa and said Merry Christmas.

She could hardly wait for her turn to sit on Santa's lap

Here she is inspecting the candy cane. She really loved Santa after that!

Candy Making

We have been trying to get all of our stuff done for Christmas and this year I decided to make some candy for our neighbors and friends. Lilly loved helping and thought that there was nothing better than tasting the candy. In fact, that is all she wanted to do! I love having a little helper around!

Here she is eating craisins. She later discovered that she really likes pistachios too!

37 Weeks

Well here we are at 37 weeks and my 4th week of bed rest and still pregnant. We really aren't sure how much longer I will be pregnant, but we don't think that it will be much longer. I went for my non-stress test today and my blood pressure was a little out of control for the first time in 3 weeks. The doctor consider inducing but decided to wait and see what happens with the next non-stress test on Thursday. We are hoping that by Thursday my blood pressure will still be up, and then we can go ahead and have a baby. We are really excited and have been nesting like crazy. Her room is all ready, her clothes and blankets are washed, and my bag is packed. Now we are just playing the waiting game and hoping that we get to meet Molly soon.

"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"

We have finally gotten the first real snow of the season! I love to watch Lilly's reaction to the snow. She gets so excited about it and can't stop talking about the snow. This is the first winter that she has been able to walk and play in the snow, and she loves it. While Aaron was shoveling the driveway, Lilly insisted on watching the whole time and kept chanting "Scoop it Daddy, Scoop it!" Hopefully the snow will stay around for Christmas or that we will get a new snow fall in time. That would make for the perfect "White Christmas!"


Aaron Shoveling the snow
Look at all the snow we got! (I know, it's not very much, but at least it's something)

"Oh Christmas Tree..."

This year we got a beautiful Christmas tree. It is even more fun because Lilly really wants to help with everything! She could hardly contain her excitement. The funny thing is that she kept calling the angel a "pretty barbie"
She couldn't wait to get started

Aaron putting the lights on the tree

Hanging the ornaments
This is what I got to do! I put on a few ornaments that I could reach from the couch! (darn bed rest!)

Lilly and Aaron. Lilly was really tired by the end, but they sure did a great job on the tree!

She's Ready!

A little while ago we were watching Grant for my sister April. Lilly wanted to help do everything for him. I love watching her interact with him. She tries to give him toys to play with and she will get down on the ground in his face to talk to him. When he got fussy she just ignored him and did her own thing. I sure hope this continues when Molly comes home! (Yeah I know, Keep on Dream'n)

She really wanted to help feed him and wouldn't let go of the bottle for anything!

26 and 29 Years Old

Last week Aaron and I celebrated our Birthdays. Mine was on the 3rd and Aaron's was on the 5th. My birthday was wonderful. Aaron really worked hard to make it special. He bought me flowers and tried to recreate one of my favorite Italian dishes. I thought he did a great job. I also got flowers from Aaron's parents and from my sister April. It was a great day!

On Aaron's birthday he actually had the flu, so I didn't feel too bad about not being able to do much for him. Our friends Dan and Candace came to visit and that really helped make his day better. I ordered him dinner (so he wouldn't have to make anything), and we just relaxed the day away. Aaron's mom had sent him a cake earlier in the day, so we blew out the candles and celebrated the fact that he has one more year in his twenties!

The cake

Lilly really wanted to help blow out the candles. Lately she has become little miss helper!
This is what happens when you turn your back. She loved the frosting, so we just let her go for it. She ate all the blue flowers!

By the time she was done her mouth was dyed blue as well as her fingers. The next day her bum was dyed blue too!

Parade of Lights

After Thanksgiving Pocatello has a Parade of Lights. The School District always enters a bus and always wins some kind of trophy or prize, so this is a huge deal. Aaron volunteered to help with all the preparations and the decorating of the bus, mostly because it meant he would get paid big time in overtime! I can't complain about that! He happened to be the only man on the team! Oh well, those ladies are really funny so he had a good time.

The start of decorating the bus

Aaron hanging an ice skater

The Crew. We unfortunately didn't get a picture of the bus afterwards because that is about the time I was put on bed rest so Aaron came home to take care of me. What a great husband!

Pictures from our "Week in Review"

The following are some pictures that came from our Thanksgiving Week.


The following is the BSU Game:
The Smurf Turf (don't you just love the blue!?!)

Part of the group: Chad, Cody, Roy, Aaron, Aunt Karen, Uncle Jim, and Amber

Dad and Aaron

This is our Beautiful Thanksgiving Dinner courtesy of Aaron. Good thing I have a husband who can cook!

Here is our Car from where Aaron got hit. Luckily it is now all fixed and ready to go again!