Kayleigh Elizabeth Turpin

After two weeks I am finally going to talk about our precious new addition! Kayleigh was born on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 6:13 pm. She was 6lbs 1 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. I had intended to avoid a second C section, but found out on the 29th that Kayleigh was breech. Instead of waiting a week and hoping she would turn, we just decided to opt for the C section. After Christmas the days had passed so slowly! I was so impatient to have her, and that was the motivation I needed :) It was nice having a day to prepare. I was able to wash all of our laundry and make some meals to put in the freezer.

Of course I also had a day to stress about the C section. With Ethan, I was so worried that he wouldn't survive and upset at myself for not knowing my water broke. I didn't even remember thinking about the surgery, I didn't have much time to worry about it anyway. This time I was A LOT more nervous. Everything went well, and I even felt good by the time the surgery actually started. (I threw up all through ethan's and only for a few minutes right after the spinal with this one) In fact, I felt like a million bucks by the time Doctor Rappleye came in, I wonder what they gave me! After she was born, they let Jay hold her until they finished. (They took Ethan straight to the NICU. I am grateful they took such good care of him, it was just hard not seeing him very much.) As Jay held her, all I could think is I can't believe how beautiful she is! She had so much hair and the tiniest little facial features. It is so amazing to finally see them after months of waiting, wondering what they will look like, and hoping they are okay in there! When you do finally see them, they are the most amazing thing you have ever seen :)

Jay was so cute with her. We had lots of visitors that first night with my dad, grandma and sister, and Jay's parents and brothers and sisters. After everyone left, he held her for the longest time and had a hard time talking himself into leaving her. It was such a sweet experience for me to see him with her. He is such a good dad, and I could tell he fell in love with her the first moment he saw her. He spent lots of time with Jayden and Ethan and brought them up to see Kayleigh a couple of times. Then Rachel watched them so daddy could spend some time with his new little one.

They let us go home on Friday and I was SOOO Excited! Most importantly, I missed my three favorite men. And I was so uncomfortable this time. They have started using these leg balloons with all C sections to prevent blood clots. They have to stay on your legs all night and they blow up and let out air like every minute!! It is kind of a noisy machine too. Also, I had my thermostat turned up all of the way and still I felt cold! The air circulation vent was right above my bed so I always felt this cold air swirling around me. I have never noticed that before. Needless to say, I have slept much better in my own bed, even with hungry Kayleigh.

The boys have been so great with Kayleigh. Jayden has suprised me how much he wants to take care of her. He often says he can't play with loud toys because he will wake up Kayleigh and also occasionally tells Ethan or I that we will wake the baby too :) He is always checking on her too. He will ask where she is more than once every day. He has to actually see her face too, to confirm she really is okay. He says "I can't see her eyes." Saturday, Jay took them out for some father son time and immediately when he got home Kayleigh was his first concern. He also loves to get diapers for me and help her any way he can. I love it! I hope it sticks for the long term! Ethan has been great too. He is so good at being gentle with her and softly rubs her hair. The only thing I have to tell him not to do is pull her fingers and toes. :) For some reason, he thinks that is very funny. Luckily, he is pretty soft in everything he does.

Kayleigh is such a good baby. She only cries when she wants to eat and I don't get to her fast enough. She is so small and her 3 month clothing falls off her. Jana helped me out and bought her some newborn outfits so she has some things that fit. As much as she eats I am sure she will grow into all of her other cute clothes in no time. I have really enjoyed dressing her in pink and buying frilly dresses I am not going to lie. I feel so complete right now!! I have my adorable rambunctious boys and now my sweet, dainty, beautiful little girl. (At least she's dainty for now. I'm sure the boys will tomboy her up before too long.) We are all very grateful to have her in our family.

Kayleigh meeting her cousin Cameron. He was born 1 week later (but due 5 days before her :). He was 8 lbs.

Christmas

Christmas was very special for me this year. We spent Christmas Eve for the last time at Grandpa Jensen's house. It was bittersweet with Grandpa gone, but still nice to be able to sit and reminisce about the many wonderful memories we created there. We had our traditional stuffed cabbage (my favorite :). We did our amateur nativity production, and opened our Christmas jammies, but my favorite part was singing christmas songs. We sang silver bells, and I don't know why, but that song always makes me think of grandma. For a moment it brought back my childhood to me with grandma playing at the piano. It was very special and emotional for me, both sad knowing that it will never be exactly the same; and happy knowing that grandpa and grandma were probably together smiling down at us.

Ethan latched on to uncle Glen during the weeks after Grandpa died. Now, he is his favorite person! He insists on being with him anytime the family gets together. Poor uncle glen probably had tired arms by the end of the night!!

After grandpa's we went over to Grandma Milligan's house and took pictures and played with Sadee and Koda. When we got home we told the boys that Santa can't come until after they are asleep. Jayden has never been more enthusiastic to sleep! He didn't even want to sing a song before bed, he insisted they needed to go to sleep immediately.

The next morning we woke them up so that we could open our gifts before starting our visits for the day. Santa brought them a big tent that took up the whole living room, but they were too tired to play with it. They woke up enough to participate in their presents though. It is so fun as they get older to see their enthusiasm. Jayden's favorite things were the goldfish from his stocking and his curious george dvd. He did play a lot with his magna doodle, transformers, and a sesame street garage Ethan got, but he didn't want to part with the goldfish. He cried when we had to leave them home from grandma's. We didn't expect Ethan to get into it as much as he did this year. He was so cute! Every present he opened he would exclaim with his most animated voice his excitement. He got both a bumblebee and optimus prime this year. I wish I were more tech savvy, I would put the tape on here. It was ADORABLE when he said their names.

We went to grandma Milligan's and she made a delicious breakfast of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. We opened presents and played for a while. Santa always visits her house too, so Jayden got more goldfish... He was pretty happy about that.

The best time of the day was when we got back home. We had a few hours before going to Grandpa and Grandma Turpin's so Daddy, Jayden and Ethan had tons of fun in the tent and we all played hungry hungry hippos. At grandpa's we ate dinner and opened MORE presents. Ethan loved the little dump truck they gave him. It is very LOUD!! The power was out most of the time we were there but turned on just as we left. It was such a cold day, Jayden hated going outside. In fact, we changed them out of their Christmas jammies for the second trip outside because the morning was so torturous for them. We left the tent up for a few days and they loved it. Now we can't wait for summer, so we can set it up outside!

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas. As always we feel most grateful for our close families, and the memories we create with them.

Tribute to my Toy lovin' men

I got some cute pictures in the "toy room" and I wanted to take a minute to say how much I love to see them all play together. For those few who don't know, Jay has a toy hobby and he has shared it with our boys. I just wanted to say how grateful I am to Jay that he spends so much time with Jayden and Ethan. He has a room that is their special room to play together in. They have certain toys that they only play with in there and the boys beg to play with daddy in the toy room. Jayden said tonight, "I like daddy, he's my best friend" He is SUCH a daddy's boy! I admit, I have been a little hurt on occasion at his refusal to hold my hand or walk with me when daddy is around. (Daddy is lots more fun :) But I would not have it any other way. Thank you Jay, for taking the time to build relationships and make them feel important.





These pics below are Ethan at one of his favorite current pass times. He loves to "ride horsie". He is doing so well! He has almost mastered walking, and uses that as much as crawling for transportation. He is so fun to be around. When he is excited about something, you know it! He uses this high voice. I don't want to talk too much about Christmas since that is my next blog topic, but Christmas was so fun for us because every gift he opened he was extremely excited about. Another thing he does that I love is he restates what you say. Like I'll be telling him we are going bye bye and he'll say "bye bye?" Then I'll say, "We are going to see grandma" "Grandma?" So I'll have a conversation with him and he restates the last part of every statement. It is so much fun. He'll make a great missionary, don't you think? He does the same thing when we help him say prayers. He just says the last couple of words of each sentence. Some of my favorite things he says are "Ceeute" (cute with a e sound). "Baby Ceeute", "Doggy Ceeute", "Daddy Ceeute"; and "cool" "trasfomers cool" "Jayden cool". He'll say an excited "Ohh" when you answer his questions. Like he is so thrilled to learn something new. He does say "Jayden be nice" And he says okay a lot...Like "I don't want to, okay?" I love it! He actually speaks very well and I am always suprised at how much I understand of what he says. And how perfectly he enunciates some of his words.
Jayden is getting to be such a big boy too. He is a great helper, and likes to help with chores and other things we are working on. He seems to take a lot of pride in being a good brother especially now with a little sister. I am getting ahead of myself since I haven't blogged about her yet. She just came home today and I have been suprised at how much Jayden has enjoyed her. He called her his baby and wants to know where she is all of the time and has spent a unexpected amount of time near her and talking about her. He said "I love the baby SOOO MUCH!"
Some other cute quotes from him lately are "Jesus is nice, he not bite me." He has also substituted daddy, and dogs or cats to that statement... He says things are beautiful. He tells daddy not to chew on things because they have chemicals in them. He also says that you can't put poop or boogers in your mouth because they have germs in them. (these come from me because I don't want him chewing on his toys... or playing in his poop or eating his boogers...) Do you think I will give him a complex? He says "Sure!" instead of yes lots of times and he tells us we are silly. "Boys can't do that silly!"
Both of them are such fun! Kids are the best thing in the whole world!