Some more Hadley Pics and updates on life

So I took these the other day to use for Hadley's birth announcement but thought I'd share them here as well. Things are going really well, my mom was here for 2.5 weeks and she went home on Tuesday. I was a little nervous to have all 3 kids by my self, I guess nervous might not be the right word, I was a little worried the boys would drive me crazy all day long while I had to sit and feed Hadley but things have been going very well being all alone. Although the real test is this weekend when Ryan has to leave me too for his moot court competition. But after that it'll be over and he'll have more time to spend with us! :o) We're all looking forward to this weekend being over with.

Hadley is doing well. She's eating well and back up to her birth weight. I'm doing much better nursing this time around than with my boys but that's probably because she doesn't eat as much as they did. But she better start putting some meat on her body fast cause she'll need it to survive in our house with footballs flying through the air almost hitting her in the head and Sawyer always trying to pull her out of the swing to hold her and give her kisses (which is sweet but he's not gentle at all). Mentally and physically I've recovered faster than with my boys although I don't like that it's winter and cold outside and I can't get out and play plus I haven't been able to run because of the cold, lack of sleep, and the fact that I don't have a jogging stroller to put all 3 of my kids in. But I'm hoping by next month Hadley will be sleeping better at night (although she does pretty good now) and the weather will be warmer which will hopefully get me motivated to get out early in the morning and run.

Ryan got some great news the other day, he has been selected for an award for outstanding knowledge in bankruptcy, or something like that. Basically it means he's been invited to a conference up in Atlanta where he gets to meet tons of bankruptcy firms, be recognized and pass out as many resumes as possible and hope we get a job out of it. This isn't the field Ryan wants to be practicing in but at this point we need a job and this award/conference I think will open up some great doors and opportunities for Ryan. We're very excited about it.

So now that I've rambled on and on, here's some pics of the cutest baby in the world :o)

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Hadley Ann Dixon

Hadley Ann finally made her way into the world and joined our family! She was born on January 18, 2010 at 3:26am, weighing 7 lbs 6 oz 20 inches long. After a very long week of on-and-off-again labor starting on Monday the 11th and pretty much being in pain and emotionally drained from it all, I finally started having regular 5 min apart contractions Sunday night at 11:30 pm. I really didn't think they'd last but after timing them for a good hour and a half I figured I might as well go to the hospital and get checked and they can tell me if I'm at least having some progression or not (because as of Friday the 15th I was still closed). So Ryan and I got to the hospital at 1:30 am signed paper work got checked for dilation around 2:00 and they said I was 5 cm 90% effaced so I could stay. We got checked into our labor and delivery room close to 2:30 and they had called the epidural guy to come in as well as my doctor. I told them once I got the epidural I'd probably dilate really fast and be ready to have this baby when it was in. Luckily the doctor got to the hospital soon after that but not the epidural guy, he didn't get there until after 3:00 and by then the contractions were getting more intense. I was managing them, but it was getting rough. When the epidural guy finally got there he did not look happy to be there and he was very rude and mumbley to us and my contractions were getting very intense. They sat me up on the table and swung my legs over the edge so I could get the epidural and as soon as I did that I had a huge contraction which broke my water all over the table. I sat there for a few more mins while the epidural went in and had 3 more very intense contractions. Finally it was in and they laid me down, but I was telling them she's coming out. At this point things went fast, the epidural was in yes but no drugs. The nurse checked me when I laid back down, said yes she's fully dilated and I said she's coming out now and they kept saying don't push, don't push. I said I'm not but she's coming out now! The doctor came in and basically caught her coming out while the nurses pushed my legs up in the stir ups and at 3:26 am she was out with 1 push. It's a good thing that memory of pain goes away quickly because that was really one of the most painful experiences of my life. However, I would do it all over again if it meant bringing a beautiful and perfect baby girl into the world. We can't imagine life with out her. The boys are both in love with her (as well as her parents) and are so sweet to her. She's a perfect fit into our family. We have already had some special moments, and I wish I had time to share them all here, but this will have to do for now.

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Labor and Personality

I'm beginning to be a little worried about what type of personality this little girl is going to have because I've been off and on in labor since about Sunday night and she's still not here. So far all my labors have showed what kind of personality my children end up having. With Caleb he was a week late and my water broke at 5 in the morning and he didn't end up being born until 8:33 at night only after they gave me pitocin at 6 at night to get my contractions going. Needless to say Caleb is my most stubborn child and doesn't like to do anything unless it's on his time schedule. Sawyer's birth was beautiful, it was so easy and came quickly and even a little early and I didn't really experience any pain until the last 2 hours of labor. Went into the hospital at 10am and he was born at 12:03. Sawyer is so easy going, very happy, and when he puts his mind to something very determined. So I ask, what kind of personality is this little girl going to have? So far I'm thinking indecisive, Ryan just says, "well she's a girl she'll never know what she really wants." Yet I know if she is indecisive it'll be from Ryan not me. :o) Unfortunately or fortunately (how ever you look at it) Caleb got my personality.

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Christmas Time (was) Here

Well, we are a bit slow getting a post up about Christmas. We had a great time just being together this year. We didn't have anyone to go visit. No one came to visit us. We just stayed home all day and relaxed. It was kind of nice for a change. Christmas Eve we had dinner with some good friends in our ward. They cooked a turkey and a ham, and all the fixin's. (Thanks Boyds!! In all honesty, it was kind of nice to leave and not have to do all the dishes. Haha) After dinner, there was a brief program reminding us of the birth of our Savior. The Spirit of Christmas was in abundance. As the evening drew to a close, we gathered the kids and headed home. After the kids went to sleep, we got everything ready for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning was full of excitement. Luckily for us, the kids didn't get up till almost 8:00. Caleb came into our room and crawled into bed. I said, "guess what?". He yawned and said, "what?" Then I said, "It's CHRISTMAS!" He shot straight up and asked, "Did Santa bring me my Lightning McQueen bike!?" I laughed. He was SO excited. We spent the rest of the day opening presents, eating a good food, and just relaxing. Here are a bunch of pictures from our Christmas this year. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) most of the pictures are of the kids.










Santa Came!



The next picture cracks me up. It is Caleb's reaction when he saw the bike. I wish we had his reaction on video. It was priceless! Ever since he asked Santa for this bike at the beginning of December, he has been SO sure that this is what he was getting. Big thanks to Santa-Grandma for getting it for him.






This was Sawyer when he came downstairs. He wasn't quite awake yet.



















The boys also got a big circus tent from the other Santa-Grandma. They have been playing in it non-stop since Christmas. This is Sawyer sitting in the entrance to the circus. (As a side note - he is now off the bottle. YAY for him.)



Of course, as soon as we had finished opening presents, Caleb had to go ride his bike. He wouldn't listen to me and take it off any sweet jumps, but he did hit a few curbs and fall over. Also, he was cracking us up before we went outside because he had to wear every piece of Lightning McQueen clothing he could find. He has McQueen pajamas on, McQueen socks, and McQueen underwear. His red coat just topped the whole look off.












For Christmas dinner, we thought we'd break out the nice Christmas china that we have had for years but never used. Well, Sawyer decided to take the "breaking out" to a new level. When we weren't looking, he got hold of one of the plates. And when Stef came running to take it from him before he dropped it, Sawyer thought he was in trouble and threw the plate down as fast as he could. Needless to say, we are now one plate shy in our Christmas setting.







Sawyer thought eating the food wasn't fun enough, so he decided to wear it too. This kid is too much sometimes. LOL.

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Baby Shower

Some wonderful friends of mine threw me a baby shower at the begging of Nov and I'm just now getting around to posting about it, but if you've read my last couple of post you can see I've been a little busy and posting about my baby shower wasn't #1 on my priority list. But I wanted to post a little something on this and get it up before I forget and actually have this baby (3 weeks!) :o)

I had a great time and got LOTS of cute girly clothes. We had some fun nursery rhyme games that I actually played and enjoyed (I know shocker! for those of you who know I don't like games) and of course there was yummy yummy food that I ate way to much of. Thank you to everyone who came and especially all those who helped put it together, you guys are wonderful and I can't wait to have this little girl in my arms in just a few weeks!

Here are some pictures of the fun event and all the beautiful decorations (excuse the unflattering pictures of me, I don't take good pictures when I'm pregnant but thought since it was a baby shower for me I'd document that I was actually there.)

(Isn't this cake Beautiful! Heather you did such an awesome job!)

Caleb and Sawyer decided they wanted in on the fun and helped me open some presents too.

I love this picture of Sawyer even though it's not focused on him, his facial expression cracks me up, like he's thinking what in the the world are these.

And I LOVE this blanket! Ryan's grandma Dixon made this, so BEAUTIFUL and fun!

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3 crazy weeks

The last 3 weeks have been crazy, hectic, scary, fun, and full of gratitude. Let's start back on Saturday, Nov. 21. We woke up early (5 am) for a lovely 12 hour car ride. We threw the kids in the car and headed up north to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina for my brothers wedding. The ride wasn't too bad and we made pretty good time and the kids did a lot better than I thought they would (especially since neither of them took more than a 20 min nap). My brother was getting married the day before Thanksgiving on the beach and my family had rented a huge beach house. Needless to say we had a great time! I was busy baking a wedding cake (white almond sour cream cake with butter cream frosting yum!), a grooms cake (chocolate cake with PB cream cheese frosting and a PB chocolate glaze yum!) and I cooked all the dinners for the week including Thanksgiving dinner. We definitely stayed busy and poor Ryan had to lock himself in a room and study all week for finals and a brief he's working on for his moot court competition, so he popped his head out for meals and every once in a while for a small 5 min break but other than that he was MIA. We had a lot of fun though and it was great to see and be with family and celebrate the last Hansen getting married and top it off with a mouth watering supper delicious Thanksgiving feast.

(Some pics we took at the wedding, we'll post more on the photo blog so stay tuned)

Towards the end of the week I had noticed Caleb's lymph nodes were starting to swell but wasn't to worried about it cause he wasn't running a fever and since he had his tubes put in last March they've always been a little swollen. By Friday night (the night before we left) They were severely swollen and he was running a slight temp. Saturday driving home he could hardly talk, was having problems breathing, and was running a temp of 103. He also slept almost the entire 12 hour car ride home. So we stopped by a drug store and picked up some Tylenol for him and I was planning on taking him to the Pediatrician on Sunday when they opened at 9 but by Sunday morning around 4/5 am of him not being able to breath all night I took him to the ER. We were there for 6 hours sitting in a little room and the doctor saw him once and then before we left they gave us a prescription for some antibiotics which didn't do anything for him.

After a couple days, there was still no improvement. Caleb's lymph nodes the size of a small orange sticking out of his neck, he hadn't eaten anything in days, he was still running 103 temp even with a constant Tylenol, Motrin regiment, and was not able to breath very well or even turn his head. So we headed back to the doctors (this time to his pediatrician) on Tuesday. They gave him an antibiotic shot in his leg and gave me a new prescription for a much stronger dose of oral antibiotics for him to take and said to come back tomorrow so we can check him. The next day (Wednesday, Dec. 2) there was still no change when we took him back to the Peds. The doctor gave him another shot in his leg of antibiotics and sent us to the ENT, who finally looked at him and said Wow he looks bad lets get him better. He took one look in his throat said he had tonsillitis and thought his swollen lymph nodes were hardening into an abscess. He admitted us to the hospital immediately. It was a long day of visiting doctors only to end up at the hospital.

(This is Caleb at the ENTs right before going to the hospital)

By this point all Caleb wanted was to go home. Poor guy had been pinched and prodded and poked by all kinds of doctors and nurses and was not liking doctors any more ... or hospitals. Luckily we have a children's hospital here and they definitely make the kids feel more at ease being there. Before his IVs went in they put numbing cream on his hand so it wouldn't hurt when they poked him with the needle and he got all kinds of presents. His favorite was a supper soft froggy that had an IV in his hand as well (he still carries that frog around everywhere).

We were there from Wednesday afternoon to Friday afternoon and Caleb was on constant antibiotic treatments. His white blood cell count was at 24,000 going into the hospital and when we left it had only dropped to 16,000. But his fever was gone and his lymph nodes were shrinking and he was doing so much better so they let us go home. He's still taking oral antibiotics twice a day for the next 14 days but he's almost completely back to normal now and he's eating again.

Ryan's mom flew out on Thursday Dec 3 to be with Sawyer while I was in the Hospital and she stayed with us for the next week. We are always grateful and excited to have grandma come. She of course sword fought Caleb everyday for hours, washed dishes for me and took us shopping! The kids got new warm winter coats since they had none and new tennis shoes. Ryan got some new jeans (since his all had holes in them and his last pair of new jeans he got 2 years ago for Christmas) and I got new shoes too since the only pair I wear on a daily basis are falling apart and were bought at least 3 if not 4 years ago. So we got spoiled, THANKS MOM!!!!! We were sad to see her leave this past Wednesday, Dec. 9 but we're looking forward to her return and Dad's in May for Ryan's graduation, YAY!

And one more exciting news was we got a new car yesterday! Well new to us. It was Ryan's parent's old car that they shipped out to us for Christmas (they got a new one) so we can fit all 3 kids in it now when Hadley comes in 5 weeks! Ahhhhh, I can't believe I only have 5 weeks left.

(This isn't our car it's just one I found online to post, but that's what it looks like with different wheels)


So again we got spoiled and are so overwhelmed with gratitude for the love and support we've been given and I know if it wasn't for our wonderful and loving family we wouldn't make it through this law school experience we're having here. Thank You, thank you, thank you again mom and dad, and also everyone else that gave of their time to help watch Sawyer while I took Caleb to all those doctors appointments and the first night we were in the hospital, you guys are the best!

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Things that made me smile today

This morning Caleb and I were making some scrambled eggs for breakfast and after he helped me crack the eggs open this is what I saw.



How can this not make you smile. So that got me thinking, I should keep track of everything that makes me smile and happy today. I must say when you're constantly looking for things that make you smile you find them all around you all the time. So my list got quite long, here are just a few from today.

- Sawyer fell asleep at the begging of lunch, he's never done this before, I think he's still getting use to the time change. And look at those cheeks don't you just want to kiss them and eat them up, he's got soft squishy thighs to go with them. I love it! :o)

- Caleb had learned how to roll his tongue and wanted to show off for the camera. :o)

- The tempature in my house this morning, no AC, no Heat. It was wonderful, at least to the pregnant lady, everyone else was freezing. :o)

- Caleb shooting bad guys with his helmet on. :o)

- The beautiful fall colors that I get to see out my window and driving around town. :o)

- Since I had my camera out Caleb kept asking me to take his picture and he was being silly every time I pointed it at him. After I took one he'd say let me see, let me see and laugh at himself. :o)

- Caleb LOVES Hungry, Hungry Hippos but Sawyer's always been to little to play with us and tries to eat the marbles, well he finally understands not to eat the marbles and we've been letting him play with us. They have fun together. :o)

- Two marbles went missing after this I figured they were some where I'd find them later. After Sawyers nap I went to put his pants back on and felt two little round ball on his bum but outside his diaper. I thought gross he pooped and it got out of his diaper some how. thankfully it was just the missing two marbles caught up in his onesie. :o)

- I haven't eaten crunchy peanut butter in a long, long time. But had some today and it was yummy! :o)

- Feeling my baby move and kick me all day long, looking at my growing belly, and even catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror always makes me smile. :o) (almost 30 weeks, in just a few days!)

- Discovering a new park to play at! :o)

- This picture cracks me up every time I see it. Sawyer got so frustrated that he couldn't climb up this tunnel and kept sliding back down. (He only made this face for literally a split sec and I'm surprise I captured it. It was more the begging of being sad than mad. After this I did help him up and he was very happy.) :o)

- Caleb pretending to take a shower. :o)

- How cute is that. Going down the slide together and Caleb was so gentle and protective of his brother. :o)

- Two of the three boys I love the most in my life. :o)

- I know this puts a smile on everyones face, aren't they just the cutest! I love my boys!! :o)

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We had a great Halloween, hope everyone else did as well. We're just glad it didn't rain on us when we went out trick or treating. It had been raining off and on all day. So the ground was pretty wet but luckily that was all. The kids got tons of candy (not like they need it or me) and we didn't receive as many trick or treaters as I anticipated so we have TONS of left over candy that I bought to pass out. Any one want any or it? You'd think being pregnant during the holidays would give me a good excuse to eat anything I want but I don't think it does it just makes it harder to not eat it. I swear I look at goodies to eat or just think about them and gain another 5 lbs. Oh well, all worth it in the end when I have my sweet baby to hold. But I digress sorry back to Halloween. Here's some shots we got of our little Peter Pan and Dinosaur before we left for Trick or Treating. (You'll notice Sawyer has a sucker already because Caleb had some candy in his bag from our ward trunk or treat and he just had to have one.)

Happy Halloween!

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