All Things Isabella

Okay not EVERYTHING is about Isabella. There are a few snippets of Coleman and Teegan. But, for the most part, our world seems to revolve around her. I guess that's how it goes with a new baby! It has been quite the adjustment trying to remember how to take care of a newborn, like bath time with umbilical cords still attached, burping often when feeding, bouncing and shushing trying to get them to sleep, and how fast you really have to change a diaper if you don't want to be peed on!

On January 24, my mom flew up to help us with the adjustment. She stayed for the week, and while she was here, I put her to work. She helped, scratch that, she thought up and sewed these curtains for Isabella's nursery. They turned out so PRETTY! I just love them! I love being in her cute room. Now we just need to work on getting rid of the "barn" smell coming from the burlap! :)

After she left, we have had a lot of pj days. I feel like I am constantly working on someone. If it's not the baby, it's one of the boys, or occasionally myself! I am just running from one person to the next! Poor Coleman and Teegan have had to find ways to entertain themselves, hence the "blanket boat". Anyway, here is a mash up of our days the past little while!

When getting ready for church a couple weeks ago, the kids all looked so cute, I just had to get some pictures.
* A little side note, no we did not take Isabella to church, but I have so many cute little dresses for her, she gets dressed up anyways!

This was her Sunday dress on February 6. So Cute!

I did finally get her announcements finished and sent out. If you didn't get one, I apologize. I didn't have the funds, nor the time/energy to make more. So this will have to do.


On February 9, my dad flew up for the day to meet Isabella. Work had kept him from being able to come earlier. He surprised us, and brought my mom along with him. I had talker to her the day before and she told me it was too expensive for her to come too. Anyway, it made for a really fun day. We just wish they could have stayed longer! Love you!

While they were here, they brought their fancy schmancy camera with them. Here are some of the pictures they captured.


Well, at least I finally updated the blog. However, I'm already behind again. I know I have more pictures to add, but they are still on the camera. I'll try to be a little faster next time. No promises though! I have three kids constantly demanding my full attention! Ahhhhh! :)

Meeting Isabella

She is here, she is finally here! On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa Roylance drove up from Utah to stay with the boys so Phil and I could leave for the hospital bright and early Monday morning. After getting checked-in and all situated, I became the human pin cushion as the nurse tried 4 times to get the IV in. Finally the nurse anesthetist came and put it in. Poor Phil was so frustrated watching the her try all those times. He started begging me to do it, but I just couldn't let him. He is the one that is supposed to make me feel safe, not stab me with needles! :) Once the IV was started, they broke my water, and then . . . the real contractions started. I only survived three before I was begging for my epidural. Yeah for epidurals! Then it was time to wait, and wait, and wait. Okay, we only had to wait a couple hours, but it was very stressful because every time I had a contraction, her little heart rate would drop very low. We briefly talked C-section, but decided to take me off the Pitocin first, which helped a little. At 3:11pm she was here. She decided to continue the drama by not breathing for the first 5 minutes. Then she still didn't make any real effort to cry or react to their poking and prodding. So they sent her up to the NICU for an hour to be monitored. They asked Phil to go with her, and so there I sat, by myself, for an hour waiting to hear how my baby was. (Actually, I sent text messages and called twice, Phil). It was a VERY LONG HOUR! She turned out fine, and the doctors just diagnosed her as a small and mellow baby. Sweet! We'll taker her! :)

Monday evening Grandma and Grandpa brought Coleman and Teegan to the hospital so they could meet their new sister. Both the boys were so cute and Teegan was selfish and held her forever before he would let Grandma take a turn.

I was recovering fast and really wanted to get home to the boys, and my own bed, so we decided to leave the hospital Tuesday night. Coleman and Teegan (especially Teegan) were so excited to have us back home. I think he is a little too attached to Mom and Dad! That first night home went really well, and Isabella has continued to be a very calm baby. It's wonderful!

She looked so dang cute today, we just had to do a little photo shoot. Can I just say that it is so fun having a girl and dressing her up in bows!

And this actually happened a couple weeks ago, but I still wanted to blog it. I have the sweetest visiting teachers, and they threw me a baby shower. I felt so spoiled. Thanks so much Kate and Sara! :)

Well, little Bella is finally awake and staring at me with her big beautiful eyes, so I'm off to be mommy! Thanks everyone for all your well wishes and love!

Prepping for Baby!

We are so excited and anxious for this little girl to join our family. Okay, I am excited and anxious, Phil is still trying to "mentally prepare" himself, which makes me laugh. I don't think that is possible for anyone when having a new baby! The past few weeks have been filled with a few pregnancy scares including a Non Stress Test and Doppler Ultrasound because the baby was measuring very small. And then a frantic call to the On Call nurse because I couldn't feel movement for awhile. However, we have been very blessed, and according to the doctor, everything is fine. We'll just keep crossing our fingers that it stays that way.
Here are a few pictures of the nursery. I still need to work on the curtains and find a cute rug. Any suggestions?

One of the pregnancy woes was that we couldn't fit three car seats into the Equinox without it being a complete pain to get all three buckled up. So, goodbye Equinox . . .

. . . and Hello Nissan Pathfinder! We are so excited to have a new car, and we LOVE it!

Christmas 2010

Christmas at our house was pretty quiet this year. Christmas morning, we all seemed to get a cold that lasted all week long. So we definitely took it easy!

On Christmas Eve, we started the day with our tradition of going out for breakfast, and once again, we chose Goldy's. LOVE that place! We did a little shopping (major mistake . . . it was CrAzY!) and made some sugar cookies.

That evening, we had a yummy dinner and then we sat and watched "The Polar Express". Afterwards, we opened our Christmas Pajamas from Grammy, sprinkled reindeer dust--so Rudolph could find our house, and left out cookies for Santa! The boys were so adorable, and so excited!

Christmas morning was wonderful. Santa Claus way over did it, even though every year he says he is going to rein it in. Oh well!


Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

December Fun 2010

I am feeling like I can't catch my breath. We seem to constantly have somewhere we need to be, or something that needs to be done! Yikes!

At the beginning of the month, we celebrated Phil's birthday. Unfortunately he had to work, and even ended up working two hours of overtime. Poor guy! When he got home, we headed to dinner at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries (of course!). Then we came home to open presents and eat cake and ice cream. Coleman and Teegan had so much fun "bumping" Dad on the head and helping him blow out candles! We love you Daddy! Hope you had a fun birthday! :)

The next day, we were able to go to Coleman's preschool and watch a short Christmas program. I felt a little silly that I didn't dress him up in anything "Christmas-y". Oh well! The program ended with Santa Claus stopping by for a visit. Coleman thought that was pretty neat! He is growing up so fast!

That weekend, Phil was working his 24 hour shift at the hospital, so the boys and I went looking for something fun to do to pass the time. We went to a little block party and the boys were able to see Santa Claus, meet Prancer, and were entertained by the "balloon guy".

On Tuesday we headed down to Utah to spend some time with family for the holidays. When we first got to Grandma and Grandpa Roylance's, they were anxious for us to open our gifts. They got the boys these motorized scooters, and took them to Grandma's school so they could ride them through the halls. We had lots of fun playing games, making hot air balloons, and eating yummy food.

The next couple nights were spent with Grammy and Grumpy. While there, we headed to Thanksgiving Point to see the lights and the reindeer, we also helped Grammy make lots and lots of sugar cookies, and we crashed their ward party so we could see Santa Claus (again)! :) We learned how to play new games and again, ate lots of yummy food!

On Saturday, we headed to Andrew and Kendra's for lunch. The guys all watched the BYU game while the girls played games. Afterwards, we headed to Salt Lake for dinner at Buca di Beppos, and to see the lights on Temple Square.

We had lots of fun, right up until the point where we lost Coleman. I stopped to snap a picture with him standing right next to me, and I guess he kept walking. We start searching for him, and end up running into my family. I was so grateful because that meant we had more people to help us search. I finally found him. It had only been about 5 minutes, but it was 5 minutes too many. He was wandering around crying. Poor thing! We finally got everyone back from searching, but then it was time to go. We had to drive back that night so Phil could be at church on Sunday.
While driving home, the roads weren't too bad, except for the ten miles before Burley. Which of course, is where we did a 360 and slid off the road. It was a very long 10 seconds. Phil was such a calm driver through it all, and the boys slept through the whole thing. Phil and I keep talking about it, and it was such a miracle the way it all worked out. We didn't hit any poles, ditches, other cars, etc. and our car seems totally fine. We were so blessed. When we got home at 1 am, I don't think either of us have felt more relieved and happy to be back.

Well hopefully I won't disappear off the face of the earth again, or I guess off the face of the blogging world! Merry Christmas to you all!

November 2010

November came and went with a blur. Andrew and Kendra came to visit us in the beginning of the month. However, I didn't get any good pictures of them while they were here. The next big event for us was Thanksgiving. My parents were kind enough to come rescue us from loneliness! They both helped prep dinner and it was so DELICIOUS! Can we repeat this holiday more than once a year? I love it! They flew back home on Friday and on Saturday we got a major snow storm. We spent almost all day out playing in the snow. Coleman and I made a snowman. I'm not sure that is such a great idea for pregnant ladies. :)

We also spent part of the weekend making a Gingerbread House. On Sunday I made the gingerbread and cut it out. On Monday, Phil helped me put it together, and on Tuesday the boys helped me decorate it. There was a bit of chaos trying to keep their little fingers from going too fast! And it didn't help that my frosting was ultra runny. Oh well! It all worked out in the end!

Halloween Activities

We were so busy throughout the last week of October. We headed to Utah to see family for a bit. While spending time with Grammy & Grumpy, we got to go help pick out some pumpkins.

That night, I went with all the girls up to Gardner's Village for "Witches Night Out". It was so fun to spend that time together and see all the other people dressed up. Wow! What an experience!
Mom, Me, Kathryn, Kage (who decided to stay with the boys), Misty, Autumn, Ashley, and Chelsea. Amber came too, but we took this pic before she got there. Sorry!

The next afternoon was Grammy's Monster Mash! This is the first year we have been able to go to her party. Everyone dressed up in their costumes:

The boys and I dressed up as Mario, Princess Peach, and Yoshi (aka a Dragon)! Grammy had all sorts of awesome activities planned for the party. We had so much fun!


Before we left, Ashley and I had to get a picture of our preggo bellies! We are due within two weeks of each other. I love being pregnant together!

We came home that Tuesday and on Wednesday we carved our pumpkins. Phil got a little carried away with the knife and ended up needing stitches in his finger. When he got back from getting his stitches, he went right back to work on carving. He makes me laugh!

On Saturday (October 30th) we went to Zoo Boise for their annual "Boo at the Zoo". The boys got to trick or treat there and see all the animals. Always lots of fun!

That afternoon we spent outside playing in the leaves. The boys were so cute and had so much fun!

Later that evening we headed to the church for our ward's "Trunk or Treat". They had pumpkin rolling contests (or balancing if you're my husband), blow up toys, and of course, trick or treating. The boys got SO MUCH CANDY!