Christmas

This is the second gift which was a marshmallow shooter.

Jace opening his Jammie's on Christmas Eve.

Well Christmas has come and gone...I find myself a little saddened that the holiday season is passing yet again and the new year is just a few short days away. As for Christmas, we had a wonderful day. First I was home from the hospital with our new addition , we were surrounded by family and of course this year Jace was super excited!!..At our house we believe Santa is a pirate because when you ask Jace want Santa says he says very loudly and proudly "Yo HO HO, Merry Christmas"! Jace has also taken a liking to the song Jingle Bells which any time we are in the car he asks to her the Jingle Bell song and states louder mom louder. I must say it melts my heart to hear Jace singing. We are trying to have traditions here at the Dunn house so this year we decided that on Christmas eve we would make a soup or chili, drive around and look at the lights and then come home and open 2 gifts before going to bed.

Jace had a lot of fun looking at lights but boy did he light up when we told him he was getting to open some presents!! The first gift were some cars Jammie's that he wanted to put on immediately before moving on to the next gift. The second gift was a marshmallow shooter that he Dan and grandpa had fun with. The especially liked torturing the dog. Then it was off to bed we read the night before Christmas and fast asleep was my not so little man.

Christmas morning was so fun!! We hid the big present in our laundry room and the first thing I do in the morning is go to the laundry room and Jace says hey a train and I was like no there is no train lets go look at the presents around the tree!! He woke up and didn't even notice all the gifts around the tree, but when we told him Santa had come he was so excited!! Jace was such a big helper when it came to opening gifts he basically opened all the presents. He was like a tornado not even caring about what he opened. The two things he played with the most after opening were the train Christmas ornament and the mater with a blue hood. He however has loved playing with all the toys that we along with Santa found him.

We are abundantly blessed and have more than we really need. We had a wonderful Christmas!! Now it is time to prepare for next year since I will have 2 children to buy for!! Just kidding now it is time to focus on being a mommy of 2 children and learning how to due the balancing act!!

Our Big Arrival!!!

Well to our surprise Addison Marie Dunn was Born on December 20th 2011 at 5:14 pm. She weighed in at 6lbs 11oz and was 19 inches long. She has a nice head of dark brown hair and has the demeanor of what I think to be an angel. Now for the story of how it all went down brace yourselves because here I go!!

It all started on Monday the 19th. For me I got up went to the gym and started my last finishing touches to the house. I guess you could say my last nesting days... Dans parents were on there way from Utah do to arrive around 1pm. My first clue that things were going to be crazy was the doctors office called and asked that I change my appointment from 9:30 to 11:30 which at the time in my head was good because I still was not done with my cleaning. I left for my appointment feeling good. I thought well after this 10min check up I will go get a pedicure and run some last minute errands. Well that did not happen the doctor was 45 min behind schedule and when she checked me she said you are dilated to a 3. She then checked the heart rate of the baby and stated it was a little blah. So she hooked me up to the monitor at the office. After about 20 min of monitoring she asked that I go to the hospital to be admitted for further observation and that possibly I would be having a baby today!! Ahhh I began to freak out. I am not ready I needed a pedicure!! Thank goodness Dans parents got her just in time to go with me to the hospital since Dan was working. We went to the hospital and they monitored me, gave me yet another ultra sound, and decided to send me home at around 7pm to let nature take its course. The doctor and the nurses both stated we will see you back later tonight.

Tuesday December 20th, I started this day at the gym, I was feeling normal so I thought why not!! We then spent the morning running errands and heading to the dreaded walmart to get all the groceries that we would need for the week just in case the baby was to arrive. While at walmart I started to have some contractions nothing painful just noticing the were there. By the time we got home and put groceries away and started to eat some lunch I was having contractions every 3 min and they kept getting stronger and more painful. I called the doctor and had to wait for them to call me back by then it was really getting to the point were it hurt. At 3:45 we arrived at the hospital. Dan was starting to panic and when we went to check in there was a line so we rushed upstairs just to be told that Dan would have to go back down to fill out the paper work. By the time the finally checked me I was an 8 and in much pain i TOLD them I wanted the drugs but it was to late they tried but by then the contractions were every 30 seconds and I felt like I needed to push. I would like to note that all this happened in an open triage room with 2 other women in there whom they had to rush out because I was going to deliver a baby right then and there. The labor and delivery floor was totally full and they had no room for us to go to before and after delivery. I can't image what Mary must have been going thru having to deliver Jesus the savior in a barn. She is one amazing women!! Now I started to panic because I never thought I would have to do this without the pain meds, in an open room full of people and 2 doctors one male and one female, but I did it and in 4 pushes baby Addison was born. I must say I am very proud of my hubby for being strong. I am sure it was hard to watch the horror. We have laughed about it the last few days and feel that although it was a complete disaster , we were being watch out for. We had great care, from the hospital and from our family and friends. I am feeling overwhelmed and yet blessed all at the same time. Jace is adjusting very well to being a big brother. I love my family and am honored call myself a mother. Welcome to the world Addie, we love you and hope you find this journey in life a joy.

Love,

Dan , Cassie , and Jace

Jace Christmas Program

December Part One

The first part of December went by so fast!! Every week was filled with an appt to the baby doctor for the usual check up with nothing eventful to report. Our weekends were filled with Christmas shopping, dinner with friends, BYU Football, and Christmas parties. Jace had a Christmas program were the kids in his class practiced singing and dancing to some sweet Christmas music. Jace was so cute he seemed to be the only one who enjoyed dancing. I don't think he realized his mom and dad were there watching because I tried to wave at him and he just kept looking around the very full room of parents . We still continued to stress over the naming of our little girl. Can I just say names for girls are hard!! I at one point thought maybe this is a sign that really it is a boy!! Jace started to recognize that really he was going to be a big brother. This to me is a good thing because for the last eight months he has been telling me that there was no baby sister and that he did not want one. He also liked to joke about names and tell me to name this little girl George!! Jace is such a little jokester just like his dad. With all our Christmas shopping done by the middle of December I was finally feeling like I could focus on getting my things together for the big arrival of our little girl. Boy if only I knew then what I know now!! More details to come of our big arrival for know here is a little video of Jace at his Christmas program.

November post sorry this is late!!

Dan Jace and I (I am 35 weeks prego here)

Dans whole family with Grandma Bird

So I am sure as you are reading this you are thinking what?? Well November has come and gone and now we are embarking on the new year but I wanted to make my blog complete before I print it out. November was fun we spent lots of time with friends, going to movies (Happy Feet 2) which was fun Jace cried when it was over!! We went to Nephi Utah for Thanksgiving where we got to spend a fun weekend with all of Dans family. While we were there we tried to come up with a name for our little girl and we were unsuccesful. We tried to do after Thanksgiving shopping but we discovered that Utah is full of people and there is no deal worth standing in line for!!! When we arrived back home we were quick to put up the tree and our lights outside. Jace was such a big helper , he handed me all the orniments and when it came to our outside decor well lets just say he wanted to be just like his dad!!! That was our November here are a few pics.

Future Dentist???

Jace pointing to his extra tooth, if you count there are 4 teeth instead of 3 it should be central, lateral, then canine but Jace has 2 central teeth.

So here is a little background to this post. Jace has an extra or fused front tooth. Kinda weird but still considered normal, and since he is so young there are no radiographs to prove whether it is extra or fused, but I think it is fused because I can't for the life of me get the floss to go between this area. So here are some fun pics of Jace flossing his teeth and then flossing his dads. He was so serious when he was using the floss on Dan, and I asked him if he was going to be a dentist when he gets "big" and he said "oh yes sure". I am sure he has no clue, but he sure liked the fact that he got to sit on top of his dad and tell him what to do!!

Halloween and Baby room updates

Halloween was so much fun!! Jace was so excited to walk around in his chicken costume and say Trick o Treat! I think he was excited at first about the candy he was getting in his bucket at the trunk o treat at church, but then when we went around our neighborhood he was more interested in the animals at every ones house it was so funny he just kept saying ooh so cute can I pet them. When we were finished he took his costume off and sat down and just stared at his bucket full of candy. He tried to take every sucker out lick it and put them back in so needless to say he was not happy when we took the bucket away and made him go to bed.

This week we have been working on our baby room. When I say we it has really been Dan who has been spending most of his time on the bead board in the baby room. My job has been to keep Jace occupied so he doesn't get into "trouble". We only had a few melt downs when we decided that we probably shouldn't let Jace have a real paint brush for fear the paint would be every where except the walls. Dan did an awesome job and I am so excited to get all my accessories up on the walls and post a total finished project on the baby room. As for the picture with Jace and the huge bear. Well my office gave me and another girl at work a baby shower and this is what I got for the new baby, a huge bear that took up the whole passenger seat in my car!!. I am not surprised at all that this bear is currently in Jaces room on the floor in the tent. He has asked me every night to put the bear in the bed but I keep telling him there is no room for both him and the bear. We have had a fun week getting things organized for the arrival of our new baby. I think Jace is starting to get that there is another person joining our little family . We still have not decided on a name but Jace says time and time again that he wants us to name her Emily or EmmaWEE as he pronounces it. Ahh it is so hard to pick a name. We will keep everyone posted as soon as we decided. Wish us luck!!

Pumpkin Carving

Here is a few pics from our pumpkin carving we did today. We bought our pumpkins a week ago and evertday Jace has asked to hold them and "make" them. Jace had so much fun getting his hands dirty. He was big help when it came time to cut out the patterns!!! He only bent the knife a few times and we had no minor or major injuries while doing this fun family activity. Hope you like our pics.

Sun, Snow, Love and Hair Bows

Cooper and Jace fishing in the pond showing us there big catch.

Okay so this is kinda a random post but I wanted to share some of our week with everyone. Mondays are my day off so since the weather was sunny and 68 we had to spend time outside and how glad I am that we did because Tuesday we got hit with a nice storm that left over 12" of snow and now it is only reaching the 50' here. Wednesday when we got home Jace wanted to play outside in the snow so I thought hmm why not I put him in coat, hat , gloves not really thinking he would really get into the snow and play and while I was walking out the door he ran outside and took a big dive into the snow and then yelled mommy help me!! It was so funny. Then tonight we came home had dinner and Jace kept covering up the dog and rubbing him saying "ahh so cute" and the weird thing is the dog let him do that!! For those of you who have not met our wonderful little pooch he never lets people just love on him, maybe he knows a big change is about to come...After our bath our friend came over with a little gift of girl hair bows to get my collection started and Jace was so excited he ran to his bed and asked me to put them on him, Dan was not home so i figured why not and boy did he make those hair bows look good!! Just a little randomness of our week.

Harvest Farm

This weekend we ventured out and went to the Harvest Farm down in Fort Collins. I had no clue what to expect, I had herd it was fun and when we arrived I saw just why the parking lot was full. There was a petting zoo which had sheep, goats, and cows. Jace loved feeding the goats leaves but he was not so sure about the baby calf he was a little aggressive and even tried to eat my shirt!! We also spent time in the corn maze running around. Jace and Dan road on the barrel train and when Jace got off he told me it was awesome. We also played in a giant corn box instead of a sand box which was so much fun even I wanted to get in a start playing. I love spending time with my little family. I wish everyday could be a fun day like this but for some reason we have to work for the man=( Oh well, all we can do is enjoy the time we do spend together and capture the memories so we can remember them for a lifetime. After the farm we ate some lunch and then made a bike purchase for Jace. I know we should have waited for Christmas but when your best buddy has a bike and the weather is still slightly nice you have to go with your gut and I bought the bike. Pictures will come soon.