Photos

I'm so lucky to have a great photographer as a friend so that we can swap every year...Thanks Crystal! You're the best!!

Our Sweet Baby Girl

At 2 1/2 months she is about 9 1/2 lbs of cuteness. We love her so much!!SO BIG!!! Eating breakfast with the fam!

Can you find the Megan?

Taking A Break

I needed a break from editing everyone else's photos to take a look at my sweet baby girl!

Finally...The Arrival of Little Miss

Okay, so Megan is 2 months and a couple of days old, I figured it's about time I got on here and posted her birth story. Poor thing--already experiencing 2nd child syndrome. I haven't yet due to time and I really wanted to do this right. I feel like the birth story tells a lot about the child, and what we went through with Megan just describes her to a T. Even my midwife figured this birth would go as quickly as Wesley's. She said she wanted me on her doorstep the minute I thought I was in labor. The day I had him I had my shower and then a the ward chili cook-off--there's no way I would have thought I was having him. And then he appeared in less than 4 hours. Megan was determined to let me know that she isn't anything like Wesley. She has her own personality, her own will, and that's just the way it's going to be. So here it is...

Thursday, August 26th I went into the midwife. The week prior I had only been dilated to a 1. I was determined to not rush this and I hadn't really felt a whole lot going on, but my midwife was curious, so she checked me. I was a little bit effaced and now dilated to a 2. Progress, but not much, okay, that's fine. But before I left I was really starting to feel some contractions and getting very uncomfortable. This continued all of Friday as well. I just didn't feel right and kept having tons of braxton hicks. I was starting to get exhausted by Friday afternoon. Saturday morning, August 28th, came along and still more contractions. It was about 9 am and I was due for work at 12, but I didn't think I would make it. Adam was helping someone move and I was having stronger contractions coming about every 5 minutes. When he came home I called my work and let them know I wouldn't be coming in. The contractions continued like this for a few hours. Adam turned on Father of the Bride Part II (one of my favorites) and I started to work on a craft to keep me distracted. I even went so far as posting on the blog to help distract me (remember that "great deal" post! That was a good one!). We went on lots of walks around our apartment building and even made the most amazing hot fudge sundae. I thought this was never really going to happen. I was really getting exhausted. Contractions had turned into every 2-3 minutes, but they weren't getting any stronger. We finally called the midwife at about 3 in the afternoon and asked her what we should be looking for. I expected my water to break like it did with Wes, so I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out. She told us to have me get in the tub and see if the contractions would get stronger, if not, the bath would maybe relieve them a little bit. I stayed in for about 30 minutes with no changes. I got bored, so I got out and then they got stronger... and stronger... and stronger. We met with the midwife at about 5 pm, she checked me, but I was only dilated at a 4, WHAT, A 4!!! I was so upset. I thought for sure I would be way more further along with all this work, but no. This girl wanted to show me! So more walking, more contractions, more waiting, more contractions. At about 8 pm my midwife checked me again. This time I was 6-7. I could only think, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! THAT'S IT!!!" She suggested I lay on my right side. My cervix was still mostly intact on my right and she thought laying on my side could help with that. I laid down for about an hour, even though it was so excruciating. She checked me again at about 10:30 and I was finally at an 8. She offered to break my water to get things moving. I gave in and she broke my water. Wow! I thought the contractions were intense before... Then it was time to get her out. Doing this after hours and hours of labor--not a good mix! It was so tough (that's truly an understatement). This time around I wondered why I do this without an epidural. I thought it was supposed to be easier the 2nd time around. Again, that's just Miss Megan letting us know that she has her own time table and we can't ever forget that! We finally got to meet our Little Miss at 11:26pm! Our sweet little girl came and all those hours of labor and hard work were forgotten for a few sweet moments as I looked into my daughters eyes and knew she was just perfect! We love you Little Miss!!

Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy

He was kind of a wrinkly little guy, I realized.

Of course, this song just had to be playing on my way home from dropping Wes off at preschool today. And of course, the tears started to flow. He is growing up way too fast! Happy birthday Wesley!! We love you!

To start out the morning he got to open one gift:To keep him busy while I made his favorite breakfast: Ball Pancakes (Aebelskivers)
Then we made his treats for his preschool class:
About a month ago Wes found these in a recipe book and has been begging for them. We decided it'd be the perfect birthday treat for his class. We finally made them this morning. He tried one and come to find out--he doesn't like them! That is so Wesley! :)

My Little Missionary

My Mother in-law went to pick Wesley up at preschool last week and she found him sitting in front of the teacher with a bunch of the other kids and the teacher was singing a song. When she was finished all of the other kids scattered and it was just Wesley. He went up to the teacher and said, "Teacher, I have a song for you." He then started to sing Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam. I guess he was very serious about it--no jumping around on this one. He must have known what an important message he was sharing! I'm so grateful for Wesley's example in missionary work and just hope I can be as good as he is one day. :)

Bribery

Wesley asked me if he could play Playstation the minute Adam left for work. I said no and then this was his response...

"I'll give you a cookie if you let me play."

Hmmm...I wonder where he learned about bribery. He must have some really awesome parents!! :)

Megan's Shower

My friends threw me an amazing shower for Megan on July 29th. My mom had all the pictures on her camera, so it's taken me awhile to post this. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family that would do this for us! Megan got tons of cute clothes that I can't wait to see on her! So much fun!! Thanks everyone for all your love!!

So Many Outfits...So Little Time...

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

She's Here!!

10 perfect fingers and 10 perfect toes! Megan Sue Atkinson was born 8/28/2010 at 11:26pm. She's 6 lbs 8 oz and 19.5 inches long and I just can't stop staring at her!!
Don't worry, more pics and story to come!

6.03 + 1.73 =

All this...
I paid $1.73 at Rite Aid for the diapers because I used a $3 +up reward that I had from a previous purchase on top of $5 in coupons and I even got another $2 +up reward back for my next purchase. I am lovin' Rite Aid right now almost as much as Target. Which is where I paid $6.03 for everything else! Coupons are seriously amazing!!
FYI: I'm typing this during some pretty crazy contractions, so I hope this makes sense. I'm just trying to distract myself--not sure if it's working or not.

Wesley's First Day!

Wesley was so excited for his first day of preschool! We had orientation day yesterday, so they showed us around and told us all the rules. One of them was that they had to wipe their own bum. We've been working on this one, but he just was not motivated to do it himself. But when we got home we talked about it some more and later that afternoon he did it!! He was so proud of himself! And we are so proud of our preschooler!!

Today was his first official day (without Mom). There were tears, but just not his. I was way more nervous than he was since he'll be gone for 3 hours, every single day! He did so great though. He was ready to kiss me good bye and he just had the biggest grin the whole time! The teachers even told me how much he smiled the whole time! He showed me everything, again, as soon as I got there to pick him up and was so disappointed when I said it was time to go. The whole ride home was non-stop talk about how much fun he had!
Yay for many more first days of school to come!!

Megan's Room - The Reveal!

I know you've just been dying to see the final product (I know I have)! So here it is...
Now we just need this baby girl to grace us with her presence! :)

Tahoe!!

My first trip to Tahoe was a success! We went with Adam's family on a day trip and we had so much fun! Just look at the gorgeous scenery! We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!

And here's a shot of the 31--now 33--week pregnant lady. I can't believe I have just over a month left!! Crazy!

Have you seen this one yet?

It's so good--totally worth the short 5 minutes of your time! There truly are so many "good things to come!!"

COME-D-I-AN EXTRAORDINAIRE

Wesley's Joke from Hillary Atkinson on Vimeo.

I Did It!

We went camping at Gerle Creek for 2 nights. It turned out to be really fun and gorgeous, of course. I slept better than I thought I would, but sorry Adam, I don't think I'll be willing to brave it again this year! So enjoy these pics while you can!

That Little Stinker!

Through the eyes of Mr. Wesley...

I was going through the pictures to do some blog posts and here are a few random ones that I found. My little mini-photographer must have found the camera, again.

More Craftiness

Go ahead, just bask in my craftiness! :)

I can't wait to see these on Megan!

I also got even more crafty and made a little taggie blankie. I always wanted one for Wes, but never got courageous enough to try it. It turned out to be oh, so easy and oh, so adorable!!

Making a Room For Megan--The Teaser

The crib came on Tuesday, so I worked furiously to rearrange the room for it. All that mess you see is cleared out now, but I don't want to post anymore pictures until it's complete. I'm so excited!!

Took Him 2 Years to Graduate...

...but he finally made it! Now on to a preschool that Mommy doesn't teach! Yay!