Alice's birthday was Apr. 29th, she LOVES chocolate cake... see below.
See what I mean??
We took her to the San Antonio Zoo for her birthday, my mom and Kayla joined us, and Alice seemed to like the birds most...
She really wanted the African Wild Dog to come closer. She kept woofing... haha it was too cute!!
She was pooped before we got to the petting zoo. Where some kid scared a goat which ran into the goat she was about to touch which then ran into Alice... Needless to say, Alice didn't like the goats so much after that. :(
For Mother's Day Spencer printed this picture and framed it with a set of Alice's handprints. It was wonderful :) I felt like a real mom :)
We went to the valley to visit Abuelita and Tia Pepper where Alice learned to say "'lita" for Abuelita, and Spencer depopcorned and patched their entire 20x20 living room ceiling. Talk about hard work. Alice and I wanted to go to the beach, but it didn't work out, so I brought the beach to us in a three ringed pool. The great thing about kids, they don't care where they get wet as much as we picky adults do!
Alice learned how to drink out of a straw on this trip too... oh boy.
One of Tia Pepper's knick knacks, Alice loved it!
Group Picture! Tia Pepper is holding Alice.
Pepper, Alice, and Abuelita
Gangsta! Haha, she loves wearing hats and stealing/eating cell phones.
First family photo in a loooong time!
Spencer and Alice, me, Kerri, Dad, Kayla, Mom, Jared, Jessi, Mark and Esper
Our cute little Family!! Soon to be bigger little family...
Celebrating Corrine's birthday at Texas Land and Cattle. Yum!
Lauren, Steph, Corrine, Alice, me, George and Spencer
Eating a PB&J sandwich all by herself.... that was fun to clean up :)
Here are a few updates:
- Spencer is doing contract work and has a couple of applications on the iphone/ipad app store! I will talk about the one he made himself in the next blog entry.
- He is doing this contract work while he looks for a permanent job and/or gets into graduate school. We hope for both! Jobs are hard to come by these days.
- Alice is talking more and more, and we are finally starting to understand her!!
- She LOVES spending time with her grandparents! Especially "Papa," my dad, mainly because he spoils her and gives her chips... haha, and he lets her stay up late! You would think he is like that because he is a grandpa, but his daughters could coerce him just as easily! I love my dad! She loves Corrine, Spencer's mom, and George, and she especially loves their walks! The take her out every evening just about! And her other "Papa," Spencer's dad, she just loves! She loves it when he plays his guitar and sings to her, she just dances and dances!! It is so cute! She loves cuddling with my mom and stealing water out of her nifty water bottle. And then there are the uncles and aunts! Haha, she loves them all! Steven is still her favorite I think because he has spent alot of time with her, but Kerri is starting to take the cake on the that one! Haha... overall she doesn't have a favorite yet, although aunt Stephy is in the running for that one... She just loves spending time with her family! It is great to be close to everyone!
- I completed a completely insane 6 week Kinesiology class at UT and almost made it out with an A, but I guess I will settly for the B+... It was a fun class, and everyone thought I was going to pop if I did anything to strenuous... At least I got out of jump roping!
- I am not going to school this fall so I can spend time with my beautiful girls, and we decided to just focus on getting Spencer through graduate school before I finish... that way if a job takes us elsewhere I can still transfer without losing credits.
- Overall, our lives are adjusting, and we are loving every minute of it!
- And for the most recent news...... We are pleased to anounce:
NORAH REBEKAH HALL
July 30th, 2010 12:17 pm
7 lbs 1 oz 19.75 in
Well, in most recent news we just had a new blessing added to our lives, Norah Rebekah was born on July 30th, 2010 at 12:17 pm. And boy is it a funny story. I went in to be induced since I had been 4 cm dilated and 70% effaced for over a week and the pain in my pelvis was just too much to handle and the doctor didn't want me taking too much tylenol... and at this point I was almost 40 wks and I wanted my baby out, but the doctor had a surgery scheduled for my due date and the hospital was available on the 30th (the day after my dr's appt in which we decided to induce), so I took it! We get to the hospital before the sun came up and they got me all set up. The doctor came in to give to OK to induce and they started the inducing stuff at about 8 am ish... By 9:30 I was 6 cm dilated, but the baby was off to the side so we think this inhibited water breakage and downward movement of baby. At 11:15 ish the Dr came in and broke my water to speed things along, since my delivery with Alice went rather promptly upon my water being broken. She gave me one last chance to get the epidural before my water was broken, but I declined. I could still get it after that, but I wanted to stick it out. Oh boy.... were those contractions sharp! I started to handle them really well, I learned that quiet and sitting up right helped alot! Spencer was a great help! He helped me cope through the whole thing. We learned that I don't like being coached WHILE the contraction is going. Well, after about 45 minutes the pain has intensified ten fold, and I decide that if it is going to get worse I want the epidural. So the nurse gets stuff ready - I really liked her, she was encouraging me to go pain med free, and not pushing anything on me - and we are waiting for the anesthesiologist. So he gets to my paperwork at a little after 12 and the nurse comes in and lets me know he is on his way. At this point I can barely breathe or think or do anything but scream and say "Tell him to hurry." So mid contraction the nurse sees how much pain I am in and asks "Do you want me to check you?" I say yes, and barely do I spread my legs that she says, "Woa, the baby's right there, about an inch from coming out." So I am crowning... hence the dramatic increase of pain. She she says, "We can wait for the epidural or you can push" I say "push" and she calls for the doctor. Spencer remembers the rest of the story better... I remember trying really hard not to push, but Spencer says I was pushing because the baby was coming out. The nurse is getting her gloves on and picks up the intercom phone to yell for the doctor to get in there NOW... Meanwhile my doctor was on her way to check on me when she passed the Labor and Delivery desk and heard my nurse yelling for her to come... So my doctor sprints for it. Spencer is getting ready to jump in and catch the baby, and then the doctor comes running in slips her gloves on faster than the speed of light, turns, and catches the baby. haha... well, maybe it took a minute, but the baby's head was coming out when she got there. Anyway, it only took one push, but boy was I tired!
See what I mean?! I look exhausted!! But I felt great! I felt empowered that I made it, and I got back on my feet right away! I will probably do this again, to tell you the truth. I loved the epidural, but I also loved having this baby without anything but Spencer to help me through it.
Funny side note. My mom didn't get there til right before they broke my water, and she left the room because she wasn't sure if she should be there or not (it all happened so fast we didn't have time to discuss it), but she was only gone five minutes total it seemed like... She said that when the doctor ran to the room she lost her badge, but my mom picked it up for her... haha.
The day she was born :)
First Family Picture :)
Alice's Scrunchy Face :)
Alice kissing her new sister
Going in for another kiss
Alice trying to show Norah one of her favorite toys :)
Our lives have been pretty eventful! Alice seems to be taking this pretty well, although, I can tell she misses our undivided attention. She is concerned whenever she hears her sister cry, and HAS to be right there! haha. But we are adjusting! I love my little family!!!
WOW!!!!!!!You are so awesome Ashley. I'm in utter shock and pure amazement at you! I can't even begin to think about going pain med free! YOU ARE AMAZING! And little Norah, is beautiful! Way to go Ashley and Spencer! Love you guys!
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