Christmas Dresses!

My gorgeous girls....

Our Little Dancer

It's dance recital time again! I love that her studio does a Christmas recital. It's just the younger classes so it's not such a long recital. It's just fun to see all the kids having a good time on stage!

After the recital the kids get to visit with Santa!

Celebrating afterward with Mom! I'm so proud of our little dancer! She's so good at it and loves it so much.

Coming Home...

Here's Leah at the hospital getting ready to come home!

SISTERS!!!!! Olivia meets her baby sister for the first time. She is so cute with her! She loves to hold her and feed her...it's been fun watching her fall in love with Leah. SO CUTE!

Grandpa finally gets a turn! Leah has captured everyone's heart.

The look on Leah's face is priceless!!! Olivia loves to take care of her.

Our New Arrival

Our precious little girl was born on November 30, 2009, almost 3 weeks early. Leah Marie Acton was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and measured 18 1/2 inches. Mom had been on bedrest for 2 weeks with super high blood pressure, and as soon as we got to the 37 week mark, my doctor decided not to wait anymore. The swelling from my high blood pressure was out of control and I was miserable! So we went in for a C-Secton on Monday afternoon. Leah had a little fluid in her lungs so they kept her in the Transition Nursery for several hours on oxygen and monitors. She was born around 2pm and at about 9:00 the nurse called and said they were bringing her to my room. Five minutes later she called and said that Leah had stopped breathing and needed to be stimulated to start breathing again, so she was headed to the NICU! I was devastated, but knew it was what was best for her. She had 2 more apnea episodes that night in the nursery, and I was so glad it wasn't while she was in the room with me! They kept her for 2 nights for observation and finally ok'd her to come to my room on Wednesday morning. It was a happy day! We both came home on Thursday, and she has been just fine ever since! We sure are enjoying her!

My poor little baby in the Transition Nursery

The first time I got to hold Leah! The nurses actually wheeled my bed from the C-Section Recovery to the Transition Nursery so I could hold her for like 2 minutes. They tried to get my bed into the nursery, but it wouldn't fit, so I held her out in the hall. I wouldn't get to hold her again until hours later! It was torture....

After I was able to get up and around a little we spent a lot of time going back and forth, the nurses or Gary pushing me in a wheel chair to the NICU to feed and hold Leah about every 3 hours. NOT the way I pictured my first few days with her, but it all worked out in the end...

Gary feeding her in the NICU. She's telling us her Dad is #1
So cute!!!!

Wide awake in the NICU, laying on Daddy! We sure treasured the time we got to spend with her! It was hard to go back to my room empty handed. The 2 days she was in the NICU felt like at least a week!

Sweet little Leah! This is one of my very favorite pictures of her.

Finally back in our room where she belongs!

Beautiful baby!

With Grandma Edmonds...there were strict visitor restrictions because of the dumb Swine Flu, and we were only allowed 2 visitors TOTAL the whole time we were in the hospital. So the 2 Grandmas were the lucky ones to wear the wristbands to get in. They only got to see Leah through the glass in the Transition Nursery on Monday, and still came to spend time with me while she was in the NICU even though they couldn't see her. It was happy times on Wednesday when they could finally hold her!!!!

With Grandma Taylor

Disney On Ice

How can I resist taking my 4 year old Princess to Disney On Ice when it's all about the Princesses???? Of course we had to go, and so did Grandma. After all, she is Grandma's Princess, too! This time we splurged on the almost most expensive tickets and boy was it worth it! We were on the 6th row and had a perfect view of everything! It was so much fun, even for us older Princesses, and Olivia sure got spoiled!

Halloween!!!!!

Olivia as "Olivia the Pig" for Halloween! My favorite costume so far. Here she is with her cousin, Tyler, the caterpillar! So cute!!!!

I was so proud of these bloomers my friend helped me make. Thanks, Lindsey!

In front with our Jack-O-Lanterns. Fun times!

Where did July go????

Well, we have had quite a busy month! It's so hard not having a camera. I'm sorry for not having more pictures, but I guess you'll have to put up with my long narrative of the month without pictures!

July started with a bang on the 4th of July with lots of family, a great parade, celebrating 2 birthdays (Gary and Olivia) and, of course, fireworks! It's been a tradition for the last few years to gather at our house and enjoy the day. We sure loved having everyone here!

Then, of course, was Olivia's birthday and her Princess Party. Check out the post below for pics and details of that great event! Thanks to my good friend, Lindsey, for taking the pictures and to all of my friends and family who helped out! The party was a great success. That night we took Olivia to her favorite restaurant...Chuck E Cheese's! The celebrating went on and on...

The month got a little crazy when I woke up one morning with a horrible toothache. It took a few days to get into the dentist and they ended up pulling my tooth. It was quite the ordeal, and I was pretty much out of it for over a week! I missed out on a lot and Olivia got REALLY bored, but we managed, thanks once again to my family and GREAT friends who brought us lunch and easy-to-eat treats, took Olivia while I slept, etc...

This last week I have been PLAYING since I was finally free from pain. Last Sunday Gary had some family in town: his brother from Nevada and a cousin from Mexico, so we spent the day at his mom's house eating yummy tacos and enjoying spending time with his family. The girls even had a toenail painting party! Olivia started 2 weeks of swimming lessons and we've been spending a lot of time with friends. We also went to the Roy Aquatic Center last week and today and had a blast! Olivia is getting more comfortable in the water, but can't swim yet, so it makes Momma VERY nervous! But it's fun to play with her in the water. She loves the fact that I can pick her up in the water because since I got pregnant, I haven't been able to pick her up! Late Thursday night we got a call from friends staying overnight in Park City who said they had a free condo for the night and would we like to use it??????? HELLO!!!! Of course we took them up on it. Olivia stayed at Grandma's and we had a night away from everything!

On Friday we saw Harry Potter for the second time, then Olivia attended her 3rd birthday party for the month (including her own). Then Grandpa lit fireworks at his house! Saturday we spent up in Big Cottonwood Canyon relaxing and roasting marshmallows with my family. It was great! And yesterday was my nephew's mission farewell, so once again we headed south for the day! He did a fabulous job on his talk and we are so excited for him to serve a mission!

So that about sums up the month. This week will be another trip to the dentist, this time for all three of us! It will be Olivia's first time.... and a lot of babysitting for me! I hope we have a lot more fun adventures this summer since it's the last time I'll have Olivia all to myself: she starts preschool in September!!!!! We still don't know if we're having a boy or a girl, but we may find out next week at my 20 week ultrasound. HALF WAY....YAY!!!!! In the meantime, I'm getting fatter, and I've been feeling a lot of movement lately - my favorite part of being pregnant!

Thanks to all for everything you do, and for enduring this painfully long post! Keep in touch!!!!

A Princess Birthday Party for our little Princess!

Olivia in her new Snow White dress that Mommy made her. It was quite the project, but she sure loved it! She also got all the accessories to go with it.

The famous Princess Castle Cake! Grandma and Mom worked hard on it. Mom did the main part and Grandma did the wonderful decorations. It was lot of work, but it was fun. I love making her cakes! Notice the picture of her on top of the cake, dressed as Cinderella!

Olivia, I mean Snow White waiting for her guests....

The birthday girl with her birthday decorations.

Playing the "Kiss the Frog Prince" Game. It was so cute! The kids were blindfolded and whoever "pinned" the lips closest to the frog's mouth won.

Making sugar cube castles

Opening a ton of presents! This princess got lots of fun stuff!!!!

Blowing out candles. Here comes the cake!

The whole Kingdom! All the princes and princesses who attended Princess Olivia's Birthday Party. Everyone had a lot of fun, especially the birthday girl!

Decorating their own crowns.

What's New?

Well, not a whole lot of news to report. The baby is growing as it should, I am feeling farther along than I should, and we should find out in the next couple of weeks if it's a boy or a girl! We are having a slow, but fun summer. We don't do much, but Olivia has been playing with friends a lot. Sometimes we go to the park or to a movie, but mainly we just stay home! BORING!!!! I'm looking forward to next week when we celebrate the 4th of July, Gary's birthday, and Olivia's birthday all within 3 days!!!! I'll have more news and pictures then...

BABY TIME!!!

That's right, it's official...WE'RE PREGNANT!!!! It's been a long wait, but not as long as some! We are so excited to be expecting our second little bundle of joy on December 19, 2009. Olivia was born two days after her dad's birthday, and this one will arrive just days after mine! So far everything looks great and the baby is growing as it should and has a strong heartbeat. Hopefully in a month or so we will know if Olivia is having a little brother or a little sister. I've heard that my doctor is good at determining the gender pretty early on. Olivia is so excited! She goes around telling anyone who will listen that, "My mommy has a baby in her tummy!" It's so cute. She is hoping for a girl, of course, but I think she will be happy with a baby brother, too! Sometimes at night when I'm laying by her she says to me, "Mom, I love our baby SO MUCH!" I love it. She will be the best big sister. We will keep you all updated!

Our Little Dancer!

After they got their dance pictures taken at the studio, we took the girls (Olivia and her friend who is in the same dance class) to the park and my friend took these pictures and edited them. They were too cute not to post! Our little girl is growing up! She is having so much fun in dance class. She dances all over the house, in public, wherever she can get an audience! I love it.

Happy Easter!

Finding her Easter Basket

Hunting for her colored eggs!

Here she is in her beautiful PINK (of course) Easter outfit. She was so excited because the skirt "spins" and the shoes are sparkly. She is so cute!!!

These are some of the pictures we took on Easter. She had so much fun this year coloring eggs, and hunting for them in the morning. Not to mention all the questions she had this year about the Easter Bunny. "Where does he live?" "What color is he?" "How does he get in our house?" "I want to see him!" etc.... I spent about 30 minutes the night before just talking about the Easter Bunny and answering all her questions. I'm glad she wasn't disappointed!

Olivia is a crack up. I don't know where she comes up with the things she does, but her imagination amazes me. Here are some examples:

She got a hold of the tape at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I don't know how this started, but she even had Grandma's mouth taped shut. It was so funny to watch her try to see through the tape to walk! She is such a goofball!!!

She found this dress in Grandma's closet and about had a heart attack to see something she could actually use as a wedding dress! She asked Grandma to make her a wedding dress out of it so she could "get married" to the prince. Of course Grandma did it for her, and then some, with the bouquet and everything! Unfortunately, the only prince Olivia could find was Grandma! She even lays on the couch and pretends to be "dead" and her prince has to kiss her so she can wake up. What a little actress!!!