Whirlwind Winter Week

Elizabeth's first week home was busy, busy, busy! From Lucy's many Battle of the Books meets, to Jon working and then leaving for Chicago, to lots more winter snow, I guess this is just a preview of what life is like with all these little rascals running around... 

My mom has become quite the quilter in her empty-nesting days. She's sewn quilts for all of my babies, and each one of them is a special treasure and keepsake.  

Here are Elizabeth's special quilts that  Grandma Joanie worked on this summer and fall-- I think they turned out absolutely adorable! I love the princess and the frog applique, and the little birds are so sweet! Someday I'll have a house big enough to hang them, ha, ha. Thanks Grandma Joanie! 

Also at home waiting for us in the mailbox was this AWESOME package from my friend Nicole who makes newborn hats and sets and sells them online as a little side business. I just about died over how cute they were, and how absolutely precious each one was! The top picture is the "Hermione" set made especially for Elizabeth-- and made Lucy almost cry when she saw it. And the Snowman set is just perfect for our little January baby!! I can't wait to get some pictures with these keepsakes!! 

Elizabeth showing off her sweet little owl hat. See that almost grin?? She likes it too.

Lucy has been involved with her school's Battle of the Books this fall and winter, where specially selected kids from each grade (Lucy is the only one from her class) read and become an "expert" on three different books off of a list put out by the Parker public library. Then they battle other 3rd/4th grade teams by answering trivia about the various books. Usually the battles all take place before school, but their final battle took place after school, and parents were invited to attend. With me laid up at home, my mom was Lucy's cheering squad and got to see this final battle.

Here are the two teams battling it out and answering the trivia questions. They try to get as many points as possible by answering their questions correctly, as well as "stealing" the other team's if they answer incorrectly. Apparently Lucy's team crushed the other teams and had the most points-- and WON! Go "Lightning Rebels!" (their team name). 

Thursday night I was feeling good, and the baby was doing great so we decided to take our first official outing. We headed to dinner at Crave for burgers and shakes, and Jon met us from work since the restaurant is in Castle Rock. Yum!

Zach is always game for burgers and fries! The baby slept the entire time, so it was a pretty easy first outing.

As I mentioned before, Lucy's team won the Wednesday night battle (along with another team who had the next highest amount of points), so then they had to battle that team for the school championship for their grade, and they WON again!! School champions!!

Here they are before the match. They battled in front of the whole school, so Lucy was pretty nervous beforehand. This time Dad and Grandma got to go watch. Now they will advance to the City Finals, where they battle 3rd/4th grade teams from different schools all over Parker. The battles take place at the library and will last the whole month of February, to then determine who goes on to win for the city. Pretty exciting stuff!

Sunday morning since we have 1 p.m. church my mom made Valentine sugar cookies with the kids-- well, just Leah since poor Lucy and Zach had come down with the cold that had slowly been working its way through the family. No fun having TWO sick kids and a brand new baby in the house! Leah of course was in heaven because not only were they pink with sprinkles, they were delicious.

Here they are, and now they're gone... They only lasted about 2 days and I think Leah snuck as many as she could whenever I was nursing. Smart girl!

Jon signed up last fall for a Dental Implant course in Chicago, which was pretty dicey when you think about it, considering how close it did come to the baby being born. But at the time it was just something that needed to be scheduled one way or another! He'd been looking at dates for over a year, and felt like it was a really important step in his professional development. A huge snowstorm (Winter Storm Kayla to be exact) decided to blow in right as he was set to come home Sunday night, and I was panicking that he'd get stuck in Chicago for 3 days as the storm raged here in Colorado. Thankfully, and what was surely an answer to prayers, my mom changed her flight and made it to Boise Sunday night while Jon made it back to Denver at about the same time, and I didn't get stuck with a newborn, sick kids, and 10 feet of snow all by myself. Phew!  

Sure enough, the storm lasted about two days-- dumping most of the snow overnight Monday to Tuesday and resulting in school being cancelled yet again! The kids definitely weren't complaining! I think we had at least 1 1/2 to 2 feet of fresh, powdery snow. Jon took Leah sledding and she was THRILLED!

Meanwhile Elizabeth took a long winters' nap....

Lots of snow to welcome the month of February, as well as this little Colorado baby. I don't dare say it because I know I'll jinx us-- but I can't help but wish that maybe, just maybe this is our last big winter snowstorm for the year. Ha ha. Hopefully spring is on its way at last! 

Welcome Elizabeth Mid Cardon!

She's here!!! Our beautiful baby girl-- Elizabeth (so she has her own special name, but we can also give her an "L" nickname like Lizzie or Libby or Liza, like her sisters), and Mid (for her great grandma Mildred who is someone we both love and respect), was born on Monday, January 25, 2016 at 11:47 a.m. And in honor of her due date which is today (2/4/16) I thought it was only fitting that we share her very own story:

A very pregnant mommy at 38 weeks exactly. It's so crazy to think that THIS little baby is who has been growing and moving inside of me this whole time! I took this picture right before picking my mom up at the airport Thursday evening (1/21), since she was flying in to help us with the kids during the delivery, as well as the week after. We spent the weekend grocery shopping, running errands, enjoying one last pedicure, and pigging out on Mexican food as a pregnant "Last Supper" (at least I did).

SUNDAY, JANUARY 24

8 p.m.: Checked into Labor and Delivery at Skyridge Hospital for induction, and dilated to 3 cm but only 50% effaced

10 p.m.: Finally get the IV inserted after three pokes, two blown veins, and two frustrated nurses (they finally had to call a Life Flight EMT to insert the IV because apparently I have deep veins, and it didn't help that my hands were swollen from pregnancy). Nurse places the Cervidil (no eating or moving from this point on) and we start the clock...

11 p.m.-6 a.m.: Enjoy a restless night of cramps, contractions, and lots of waiting... (and poor Jon tossing and turning on a pull-out bed)

MONDAY, JANUARY 25

6 a.m.: Dr. Lamb comes in and checks me, and I'm totally thinned out, dilated to 5 cm, so he breaks my water and starts the Pitocin

9 a.m.: After some pretty consistent, huge and very painful contractions, the anesthesiologist comes in and does the epidural

10 a.m.: Nurse checks and I'm dilated to 7 cm

11:30 a.m.: Dr. Lamb arrives and the nurse sets up the delivery room

11:47 a.m.: Three big pushes later and this little lady is officially here!!! 

Elizabeth Mid Cardon

Nice and pink and bright eyed!

She was my smallest baby, weighing in at just 6 lbs. 15 oz. She is our petite little peanut. Leah was born a week earlier, and weighed almost a whole pound more!

I was terrified of the delivery. Just ask Jon. I was having bad dreams about it for weeks beforehand, mainly because Leah's delivery was so traumatizing. She ended up coming out head and shoulders at the same time-- kind of like an explosion, and I tore really, really badly. I couldn't sit or even stand up  comfortably for weeks afterwards. Naturally I worried and worried all while I was pregnant with Elizabeth that the scar tissue wouldn't hold and the same thing would happen all over again-- maybe even worse. Thankfully my doctor here was aware, and also since she was smaller, she came right out without any problems and my subsequent recovery has been so much easier and quicker!

I absolutely love this picture! She is so mellow and peaceful and good tempered. Like, "Hey World. I'm here. What's next?"

She has dark brown hair and big blue eyes ((we think so far)). She's such a beauty! We are SO thankful she arrived as quickly and smoothly as she did. Labor and delivery are always scary, but we definitely had two prayers answered during this whole process. Leah had been sick with a terrible cold all the week before the induction, and of course I caught it right before Sunday. I was feeling so tired and crappy-- sore throat, congestion, achey, etc. but mostly feeling SO frustrated with the very bad timing of this cold! Jon gave me a blessing Sunday morning and blessed me that my cold would go away and that I'd be well throughout the delivery and after, and it was absolutely a tender mercy that my cold did indeed disappear, despite being up for over 48 hours. Additionally, throughout the morning, Elizabeth's heart rate would drop really low during my big contractions, which was starting to worry the nurses and doctor. They were willing to watch it as long as my labor progressed quickly (which it thankfully did), but as soon as she came out and the doctor caught her, she'd had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck not once, but twice.  So scary! 

After I'd "recovered" down in the delivery room, and finally eaten lunch-- around 2 p.m. they moved me over to my recovery room, which was actually pretty nice and quiet. As soon as my mom had picked the kids up from school Elizabeth had her very first visitors! Leah couldn't WAIT to get her hands on her!! She handled the whole experience really well-- she knew I was headed to the hospital to have the doctor "get the baby out," and there were only a few tears when it came time to leave and go back home without us. She always tells me, "our baby is soooo cute!"

Zach's turn!! Such a proud, protective big brother! He's going to be so sweet with her-- and can't wait to make her smile and laugh. The first night home he says, "so when can we see her crawl?"

The big BIG sister and even bigger helper, Lucy! Apparently she had been waiting ALL day on pins and needles to see if I'd had the baby.

Ha ha ha! I love this face. Not sure what this expression says about how Elizabeth felt about all these visitors!

Grandma Joanie to the rescue!! I'm so thankful my mom was able to be here to help during and after the baby was born. She held down the fort and kept the home fires burning-- cooking all the meals, cleaning tirelessly, folding laundry, tending kids, burping babies, changing diapers, wiping bums, running kids around, grocery shopping, and sacrificing time to be here (and also my dad who supported her coming even though it meant no hot meals for a week). And thanks ESPECIALLY for rearranging her schedule so that she could stay the extra weekend while Jon left for an implant seminar in Chicago-- which meant not leaving me to fend for myself 4-days postpartum with four kids. THANK YOU!!!  

Elizabeth passed her 24 hour tests with flying colors and mom was already discharged, so at about 2:30 p.m. the next afternoon, we bid the hospital goodbye and headed home! Hooray!

All bundled up against the Colorado cold and buckled into her car seat for the ride home!

The onesie Lucy picked for her to wear home said, "I'm the new favorite." Very true!

Lucy, Zach, and Leah have been THRILLED with their brand new baby sister and can't get enough of her!! I wake up to all three of them bolting into my room first thing in the morning asking to hold her.

Leah has totally adapted to being a big sister and just begs to hold Elizabeth. We've had a few naughty moments where she's tried to pick her up by herself or she's gone and woken her up, but mostly she's just adapted to no longer being the "baby" and has done great! Yay!

Sweet tiny feet

Perfect little hands and fingernails

Elizabeth totally responds to everyone's voices-- she hears her siblings, or her daddy and she turns her head to where it's coming from. One morning she was nursing and as soon as Jon walked in and started talking she had to turn and see him. It was so sweet! She definitely knows all these different voices. And she LOVES to be snuggled!

Here I am! I didn't realize until after we'd already left the hospital that we didn't get a single picture of me or Jon with Elizabeth which is a little sad, but that's life with FOUR kids, ha ha. So here I am. I am loving every minute of cuddling and snuggling this precious little baby! They are not this tiny for very long. I keep reminding myself that the tired-zombie-up-every-two-hours phase passes pretty quickly, and to just enjoy that this is the last little newborn to grace the Cardon household. Let's just say that it was probably the most emotional pregnancy I had-- with it being unexpected, and right during the move, and trying to settle into a new job and new house, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. She absolutely belongs in our family and it was love at first sight. She is SUCH a precious little gift for our whole family. It has absolutely reaffirmed to me that Heavenly Father knows just what we need even before we do. Welcome sweet Elizabeth Mid, you were so very needed to make our family complete!!  

January Jitters

It's hard to believe we're already halfway through January! January is always such a slow-moving, cold, dreary month after the rush and fun of the holidays-- it's been hard to get back into the swing of things, especially knowing there could be a baby coming any day now! Life feels crazy and unsettled as we impatiently wait for Baby #4, and I just keep asking myself, "What will life be like with FOUR kids?!?" With Jon already working 2 weekends a month here, and then for the next four months he'll be flying out to Chicago for an implant course every 3rd weekend-- I'm getting some serious jitters just wanting to get it all over with (plus some temperatures above 25 degrees would be a welcome change)!  

Here's Miss Leah's beautiful long golden locks-- the source of many, MANY tears whenever we have to wash or comb it. She loves having long "princess" hair and only ever wants to wear it down like Sleeping Beauty, but hates that long hair requires some semblance of personal hygiene. Lately I just haven't had the energy to fight her about combing and fixing it-- and it was just getting rattier and more and more tangled the longer it grew.

I finally decided all those tears were just too frequent and too much to deal with and she would just have to have a haircut! In this picture she looks pretty happy-- but when we first got there she was NOT HAPPY. She screamed and cried and didn't want to get it cut, but ultimately I won. 

We ended up cutting about 6 or 7 inches off, and Leah decided it was okay to have her hair cut after all. We only had to bribe her with lunch at Chick fil A afterwards!

She looks SOOOO cute!! And older, too! Thank heavens for haircuts-- it is so much easier to brush everyday, wash when she has a bath, and even when she doesn't let me fix it, it doesn't get nearly as tangled just wearing it down. I should have done this months ago!

I made some homemade play dough the other day and my kids have been obsessed with it. Especially Leah-- she loves to cover her toys and princesses in play dough and it's kept her entertained literally for hours. It makes a HUGE mess all over the floor and table because the little pieces get everywhere, but if it occupies her so I can get other things done-- who cares?? 

She and Zach spent a whole Saturday morning making all kinds of creations, and this was Zach's play dough monster. Creepy, right? 

During Leah's play dough time I've been busy getting things ready for this baby! It's been weird how all of a sudden the "nesting instinct" hit me right after Christmas, and since then I've been obsessed with checking things off our list. Jon built a new dresser for Leah and the baby to share, we cleaned out Zach's closet so we can fit baby stuff, cleaned out Lucy's closet to fit more baby/girl stuff, cleaned out the downstairs "extra" bedroom area so it can eventually become Lucy's room, washed storage bins full of newborn clothes, washed and cleaned the infant car seat, reconfigured the seats and car seats in the van, and Lucy (our resident fashionista) picked out the baby's first outfit home from the hospital. I think we are ready. These kids are sooooo excited!

  The girls at Jon's work brought in all of these diapers and wipes and a really nice gift basket with tons of clothes and baby items-- which I thought was SO nice of them and was totally unexpected. That took care of the lack of diapers! We should be good for a month or two.

There was a really nice girl in my ward who also offered to throw me a baby shower, and I got so many fun girl clothes! I told her I didn't need a shower, because it was my third girl-- but she insisted and I'm glad she did, because it really is fun to get new clothes (that haven't already been through 2 babies) and have special outfits that are this baby's very own. Lucy went through and arranged them all as soon as I got home.

The other big project we've been working on is trying to make our laundry room more manageable. I literally got to the point that I couldn't even do the laundry-- our washer and dryer are so bulky, and the laundry room so small, I couldn't fit between the wall and the unit when the doors were open because my stomach was so big! There was also only one shelf to store things on-- above the washer and dryer, which again I couldn't reach because my stomach is so big! Although it was only a temporary problem, we found a permanent solution by stacking them and scooting them both into the corner. 

That made room for these storage shelves at IKEA which hold 10x as much stuff-- and now there is so much more room! I can easily switch the laundry without having to bend over, and there's even room to spare to fit laundry baskets. Hallelujah! 

Lucy has suddenly become a baker extraordinaire! My mom left a Food Network magazine here over Thanksgiving that was full of easy baking recipes, and Lucy has gone to town! It's amazing how mature she is-- she just reads the recipes, I help her find all the ingredients, and then she just does it. She's made several different kinds of cupcakes, garlic cheese biscuits, and on Sunday she made us this yummy pumpkin bread. I told her anytime she wants to take over dinner duties, I fully support her!  

The kids recently had a 4-day weekend thanks to the MLK holiday, and although we tried to get out and do some fun things before the baby comes, unfortunately Leah came down with a terrible cough Friday. She was pretty much quarantined until Monday, when she seemed to finally be feeling a little better and we headed over to the Wildlife Experience in Parker. It's a museum run by Colorado University and is full of cool animals and their various habitats.

The animals and displays are all pretty life-like and some of them move and make noise, so Leah (and even Zach) were freaked out by them and didn't want to get too close. Once they realized the animals weren't going to jump over the railing and get them, they could finally focus on learning about them and helping Lucy with the scavenger hunt. They all really liked it.

Naturally since Sonic is just down the road from the museum we had to swing by for Happy Hour and half-priced slushies and mozzarella sticks! Yum! 

Later that night we met the cousins for some pizza at the newly opened MOD Pizza in Castle Rock. We'd never been, so it was fun to try something new. Lucy definitely liked having her very own pepperoni pizza!

I got the "Dominic" which had red onions, tomatoes, and chicken sausage-- but I liked Jon's a lot better. It reminded us both of Brixx in Pinehurst with the super thin crust, but better because you get to order at the counter instead of sitting down and ordering.

I think any 4-day weekend that ends with cousins and pizza is pretty much a recipe for success. Now we are back to twiddling our thumbs and waiting for this little lady to make her eagerly anticipated arrival ((hopefully)) this Monday!!