Birthdays & Blessings

So this is our crazy little Ava! She started sleeping in her "big girl" toddler bed the day after my last post and she loves it. We couldn't resist taking this picture of her a few nights ago where she insisted that she sleep with this "hat" (bowl) on her head and positioned herself at the end of the bed to keep it on. She is seriously such a funny little girl and has more personality than anything I could have ever dreamed up. I love it! My cute little family! The first night in her new bed! She did awesome in it I was so impressed/grateful :)

See LOTS of personality! This is how she decided to eat her dinner one night... As you can imagine she didn't eat much of it.

So tomorrow (in about an hour) our little princess turns 2

So we had a little princess party for her on Saturday night with some of her little friends

We searched for Princess Jewels (aka easter eggs) and had a cupcake/princess musical wand walk

And ate some delicious princess cake

I can't believe our little girl is 2. I swear we just had her. She is such a fun little girl and we love having her in our home! Dave and I constantly look at her and ask each other when she grew up. It was seriously over night. This morning she woke up asking for "one more present." That is her new favorite phrase. But one more normally means a lot more than one. Good thing we had a family party for her today :)

So this is how the morning started in preparation for Ella's blessing in church :) Thankfully it didn't end that way...

Our beautiful little baby in her blessing dress

She didn't even make a peep during her blessing

What a sweetheart!

Our Wonderful Family that came for the blessing

Birthday Party #2 with all her Ashby cousins

Exhausted from the over stimulated, sugar rush weekend (her mouth was blue from the ring pop she was eating) she fell asleep on our lovesac. It was a crazy and busy weekend, but so much fun and we were glad we were able to spend it with our friends and family!

6 Weeks

One of our good friends took some adorable pictures of Ella for us a few days after she was born. They turned out so cute! Thank you so much Kristi we really appreciate you doing that for us even though Ella wouldn't cooperate and stay asleep :)!
I can't believe that our little Ella turned 6 weeks old on Wednesday. It feels like just yesterday that we were heading to the hospital, yet I can't remember what it was like without her in our family. She is such a sweet and content baby and Ava just loves her too (sometimes a little too much). I think the first 6 weeks are the hardest after having a baby. Just adjusting to no sleep :) and to a new member of the family. The last little bit has been so easy though. I feel like I am getting the hang of having 2 kids and going out is so much easier. I am grateful for that. Ella is sleeping so much better too! The last few nights have been great and hopefully they last.
Ella looks so much like Ava did at her age. It is crazy to look at pictures and see the similarities. Ava will be 2 in a week and a half and I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by. It makes me sad but I love seeing the different stages they go through. Ava is my little buddy and has been such a champ through this transition. We bought her a toddler bed yesterday so we'll see how that transition goes :) but she is such a sweet little girl and I love the stage she is in. She is so curious about everything and is constantly talking - which I am pretty sure happened over night. She puts words into sentences and she communicates so well. She is so funny. Some of my favorite Ava quotes are, "I'm gonna get you" as she runs away from us for us to chase her - she especially loves this game with her daddy when he comes home from school. Another one is "It's ok, no wors (worries)" she normally says this after she has loved Ella a little too much and Ella is screaming. It cracks me up! The other day we were on a walk and Ella started crying and Ava said, "It's ok, no wors! Hungry? Yeah!" It was so funny because she was answering for Ella and Ella was hungry. You probably had to be there to hear Ava say it but it was probably one of the funniest things she's said.
Ella rolled over from her stomach to her back a week ago Thursday. I am sure it was a fluke thing but I wouldn't be suprised if she starts doing things early just for protection sake from her big sister. I know Ava can't wait until Ella is big enough to play with her. She is always trying to get Ella to play "zoeys" with her. I don't know where "zoey" came from but that is the name of all her little dolls - and those dolls go with her EVERYWHERE. She loves holding little figures and it is very hard for her to give them up when she finds some at other people's homes.
But all in all these last 6 weeks have been a lot of fun and a lot easier than I thought it would be. I've even run twice since my 6 weeks mark - which was just on Wed. so that is pretty good and I am proud of myself. It is a pretty good workout pushing a double jogger! Life is great though and we are enjoying this stage we are in!

The truth and lies about labor/delivery

Alright so I have a minute to write about the whole birth experience of Ella. This is probably not a post to read if you are pregnant :) but you will probably have a much better experience. So with Ava it was the pregnancy that was rough. I was sick all 9 months with her and gained a ton of weight, but the labor and delivery was a breeze. Ella was the opposite - pregnancy was a breeze but the labor and delivery was pretty rough.
At my appointment before Ella was born (Monday, January 31st) I was already dilated to 5 cm and 75% effaced. I was told that I would have a quick labor since I was that far along and to hurry to the hospital once labor started.
Lie #1 - Just because you are VERY dilated and effaced does not mean your labor will be fast.
That Tuesday evening I started feeling some pretty good contractions enough so that I could not sleep. So I wake up Dave thinking we need to hurry because we are going to have this baby quick. We called our friend Stephanie to come over and stay with Ava so we could go to the hospital. (Thank you so much again for watching Ava for us Stephanie!! You are the best!) We got to the hospital around 3 am Wednesday morning and we were admitted right away. I was dilated to a 6 at this point. So we are thinking we are going to have a baby before breakfast (which I was really hoping for because for some reason I was starving). So they bring us up to our labor room and get us situated. They tried 4 times to get an IV in me which started off the painful day that awaited me. Finally the anesthesiologist was called in to get one in me. I am still bruised from those pokes! By then I was dilated to a 7 and all of a sudden my contractions stop. I don't know what my body was doing but this little girl just really did not want to come. Normally that is when they start picking up. So I decide that I want an epidural and want them to break my water so that my labor will start up again and will speed up. At 7 am the doctor comes in to break my water. My OB was out of town all week so it was another dr that was on call. They broke my water and for some reason my body freaked out again. I started fainting and my heart rate jumped up and little Ella's dropped. So in my moments of consciousness I see about 10 doctors and nurses in my room running around yelling code something and dressing for an emergency c-section. I start freaking out even more, hyperventilating and crying especially since the night before a friend of mine was telling me how they tie you down during c-sections. Also I was scared we were losing our baby. So I was completely panicked. At this time it was the switch between on call doctors and the new doctor, Dr. Sawyer comes in. He was so calm and grabbed my hand and told me that everything was going to be ok. He said to hold off just a second to see what happens and right then everything normalized. My heart and Ella's went back to normal and everything was fine. He told us after that that is as close as it gets to not having to have a c-section. I was so glad!
Lie #2 - Breaking your water does not always speed up delivery.
So we labored and labored and labored until finally I was dilated to a 10 at around 1 pm.
Lie #3 - Pushing the 2nd child out is quicker and easier than the first.
We pushed for over an hour and finally they used a vacuum to get her out. My epidural wore off right when it came time to push. I thought I was going to die!
Lie #4 - You feel where and when you are supposed to push.
Lie #5 - It feels good to push.
I have never felt more excruciating pain in my life! I felt the contractions and they were awful! That I guess helps you to know when to push but when you start pushing the pain intensifies about 100 times. It by NO means feels good to push!
Dave was actually able to deliver me after they vacuumed her out a little and he put her on my stomach. Dr. Sawyer was a great doctor though and I am glad he was there. He was very calm with everything that was going on with me and helped me calm down too. Although at first I was slightly disappointed that my Dr. wasn't there. He was also so good to Dave talking him through everything and letting him participate so much.
Truth - It is all worth it in the end.
After the day was done and the most awful 12 hours of my life were over :) holding little Ella was worth it all. No I am not ready to have another one - hopefully someday the trauma of that day will be forgotten. However, we are so glad that she is here and we love her so much. We just hope she learns to differentiate between night and day soon so we get a little more sleep!

Ella Rebekah Ashby

Ella was born on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 2:05pm. She was 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 20 3/4 inches. We are so happy she is here and love her so much. I will write another time about the whole crazy and painful :) experience but I am too tired now and we wanted to post some pics for everyone. So here she is!!

Glad I Wasn't Home

So I just pulled into my garage about 20 minutes ago to see a cop car outside. I thought to myself, "I'm glad I am going the speed limit and stopped at the stop sign!" I go inside and hear something at my front door - someone talking on a walkie talkie. I thought that was interesting that the cop was at my door so I opened it up to find him taking finger prints off of our door. He told me that while we were gone someone had tried to break into our home! Apparently the person rang the front door and tried breaking in because no one answered. He couldn't get in so he went around back and tried getting in our back door with no luck so then he took off a screen from our window and couldn't get in. Thankfully at that point he gave up and left. Apparently there was some surveillance team watching the guy so they are going to arrest him and let me know. Crazy though and pretty freaky! I am seriously just glad I wasn't home because I would have completely freaked out especially since I don't ever answer the door unless Dave is home or I know who is there. I would have freaked if I heard someone in our backyard! I just feel so blessed that we were protected and that Heavenly Father was watching out for us!

Our Christmas Adventure

I would have to say that this year was one of our best Christmases ever with adventure after adventure. It all started about 7 months ago when I convinced my whole family to come to Arizona for Christmas. I figured I would be nearly 8 months pregnant by then and wouldn't want to be traveling much and AZ is the perfect middle ground for everyone (plus we haven't had a Christmas together in over 5 years) so it was the perfect ploy and it actually worked :)! I convinced them all and with that my parents decided to rent a cabin in Pine, AZ (about 90 miles away from us) to accommodate our whole family - 10 adults (one of which is 91) and 7 children 5 and under. It was a beautiful cabin and perfect size and location. We were nestled on top of a very steep mountain - I was worried our little Camry wouldn't make it up the steep roads. We all made it though and it was perfect. The weather the first few days was very nice which was perfect for chopping down a Christmas tree and going on some hikes.
Christmas morning was wonderful, except for Paul being a little slow and little Evie disowning him as her friend - being patient isn't a Mathews trait. It was so fun seeing the children so excited that Santa found our cabin and all the fun toys he brought them. I'm sure Bruce's reindeer food we sprinkled outside on Christmas eve helped Santa find our place with no problem. Santa brought Ava a little doll set with a stroller, swing, high chair, car seat, crib, etc that she loves playing with and feeding her baby - I hope it will be a good distraction when baby #2 comes. Ava was in heaven though with all of her cousins. She loves being with friends and making new ones, our little social butterfly. (On a side note to demonstrate this I had my OB appt. on Monday and there were 2 people in the waiting room, one was a man with long hair, a beard and lots of tattoos who she pointed at as we walked in a called "JeeJee" (Jesus) - we need to teach that a little better I guess :)- and then another woman waiting for her appt with a doctor. We were probably waiting about 15 minutes and Ava became best friends with both of them and kept going up to them and talking to them and wanting to share toys and treats with them. She is so funny and not afraid of anyone.) But anyways back to Christmas. Everything was perfect until Tuesday evening when we were starting to put the kids to bed. Ava had a habit of wondering around and losing her binky and blanket so every night I searched the cabin for them. On this particular night I happened to wander into my 91 year old grandpa's room. I saw a Barbie doll on the ground so I just went to pick it up thinking nothing of it and just that one of the kids had gone in there until I looked on the ground next to the doll... My grandpa's pills had been open and some had spilled on the ground and there was vomit on top of them. So of course I freak out knowing it is either my daughter or my sisters so I start yelling to figure out which child just ingested a bunch of pills. It was Eve (my sister's daughter who is 2) she had vomit all down her shirt. So my sister in law calls poison control and they tell her to take Eve to the hospital which was about 25 minutes away. Luckily none of the other children got into the medicine, but we were sure worried about little Eve who was pretty oblivious to the seriousness of what she had just done. She had the time of her life at the hospital and getting a ride in an ambulance down to Mesa, a new stuffed animal, etc. I don't think the hospital taught her much about consequences but thankfully she was fine and they released her the next afternoon. At this point the snow started coming. I blame my husband for this because everyday Dave was hoping for snow and wanting a white Christmas. It came a little late and lets just say it wasn't just a little snowfall. We got 2 1/2 feet of snow and were completely snowed in! We were supposed to be leaving the next day but there was no getting out. Luckily we moved all the cars, except our truck, to the bottom of the mountain before it started but even at the bottom those cars weren't budging. Finally some nice man with a big truck and tow cable was able to save our cars from being stuck and we were able to move them but we were still a half mile STRAIGHT UP the mountain with all of our luggage. On Friday we decided it was time to go and all the men made several trips in knee deep snow up and down the mountain to bring all of our luggage down and then lastly they came for the rest of us. We all got to experience a little pioneer moment trudging down the mountain in knee deep snow. I am just grateful I didn't go into labor or anything crazy like that. I think we had enough adventures for one week. We are happy to be home safe though (it's another story for our poor truck that is still stuck on the mountain) and close to a hospital (for when the baby comes in just a few weeks)! What wonderful memories though that will never be forgotten.