Three days old

Thanks Cristi for the great pictures!!

the 2nd week

Nora met two of her best friends. Here's little Kennedy, two months older. If she grows up to be half as fun as her mommy Nora's in for a good time. :)

And here's the three musketeers! Kennedy, Carly and Nora! Watch out world!! Carly is two months older than Kennedy and four months older than Nora. Her mommy is too nice to me. So funny to think that this time next year they'll probably all be about the same size. Why can't babies stay small longer??

Saturday we had the baby party for our Birth Class. After spending 12 weeks talking about birth and bodies and babies with these people, it was fun to come together again and see the fruits of our labor.. hehe. I really loved my birth class. I'd try and explain why.. but that could get really long, lol. But anyway, I definitely recommend taking one. :)

And here are all the cuties. Only one couple couldn't make it, they had boy. Which makes 6 girls and 3 boys! (In case you are wondering the girl who's actually sitting up checking out all this craziness is Phoebe, the 9 month old daughter of our birth instructor. She came to all the classes too, so she needed to be in the picture) Starting with her and going clockwise we have.. Phoebe, Simon, Nora, Sydney, Janelle, Kennedy, Nicole, Maizie and Zephyr. (Isac was missing)

And for fun... here are some silly faces made my Miss Eleanor. She has the most expressive face, it's hard to catch it on camera (especially if you are a slacker 2nd time mom who forgets to get out the camera very often) but she was grinning up a storm so I went to grab the camera, and when I got back I got these. Some of the looks she gives me that cracks me up. :)

(this one really gets me, hehe)

And in Ainsley related news.. (yes, remember that other girl I have, lol) we went and saw Toy Story 3 on Friday. She loved it! Except for the one part where it seems as though Buzz and Woody and all his friends are going to be destroyed... she was sobbing uncontrollably that whole time. We kept trying to tell her they'd be ok, but she refused to believe us. But once they were saved she was back to loving it again. We asked her what her favorite part was and she said it was 'Buzz Dancing'. If you've seen it, you know what she means, hehe. If not, go see it!! It's really cute. :) Check out the sweet pic below to see Ains in her sweet 3D glasses.

Life with Two kids

Well, it's been 11 days as a mother of two. My mom came for the birth and stayed another week. It was great having her. Ainsley was thrilled to have her GrandmaCinda here. They played dress up, and mom made her another princess skirt. It was so great to have someone to give her the attention she needed while my attention was elsewhere.
Nora has been such a sweetheart. She's a mellow baby. She sleeps well and eats like a pig. She's got that great baby smell and I find myself just sniffing her head constantly. My favorite moment are the few times she's awake and not eating. She makes the funniest faces. I know she's not even two weeks old but I swear she smiles all the time. Funny little half smiles and goofy little looks around. It makes me laugh.This week Tom's mom has come to stay. A weekend with no grandma's here to help makes me extra grateful for her presence. Tom got sick right after my mom left and I went from being babied to having to be the grown up again. Reality.. ugh. ;) So I'm trying to just enjoy being pampered again, and not feel like a lazy bum while my mother in law makes me food and cleans my house and lets me nap and play with my little girls.

How blessed am I.

Birth Story

For those of you who are interested, here is a photo birth story of the night Eleanor was born.
I invited my friend Cristi to the birth, and she documented it for us.

(p.s. there's no nakedness here.. strictly pg rating)

http://cristinelsonphotography.blogspot.com/

Eleanor

Well we're officially a family of four! Hard to believe!

At 3:33am Friday June the 11th Miss Eleanor Christensen entered the world. (still haven't decided on a middle name). Not a lot of people know this, but we'd been planning on a home birth this time. Last time we went to a birth center with a midwife. This time we used the same midwife, but skipped the drive. Instead she came to us, with all of the same safety equipment and supplies that she had at the birth center. She also brought a tub, which is where Eleanor was born.

Our baby Nora weights 7lbs 15oz, and is 20" long. She has dark hair, all 10 fingers and ten toes. She's perfectly healthy and the sweetest little bundle. She's been eating great, and when not eating she's been sleeping. She seems to be pretty happy. She only makes a peep when I don't get the food in her mouth quickly enough. She's not even 24 hrs old yet, so we'll see if this continues.

Ainsley is very excited. She went to bed Thursday night as an only child, not much seemingly going on, and woke up Friday morning to find a baby sister asleep next to her mommy. At first I think she was a little confused, but once she figured out that it was her baby sister, she got very excited and couldn't wait to hold her.

The Big Girl Room

Ainsley's main birthday present from us this year was a 'Big Girl Room'. With the baby coming we decided to move Ains into what was the guest room. It's bigger, and I wanted the baby to be in the room closest to ours (whenever she moves into there.. she'll be in our room for a while) but I didn't want Ains to feel like she was being pushed out of her room by the baby, so we decided to make the move about her birthday, and being a big girl. :)

With the inspiration, help and encouragement of my talented crafty friends, and thanks to the insane nesting urge that has taken over my body lately, here's what we managed to put together for our Big Girl. :) Ainsley will be your tour guide. :)

Princess Party! Ainsley's Third Birthday

So for my little princess' third birthday party we decided to do something a little differently. Partly because I thought she'd love it, and partly to keep the effort on my part to a minimum (9 months prego over here, thank you!), we took her and her favorite little girl friends to be pampered like the princesses they all know they are. :)

We went to Echelon Edge a local beauty school

Ainsley was SO excited!

Waiting for the other girls, Brooklyn and Ainsley danced. :)

Ains deciding she could get used to this

The stylist soon discovered how insanely fine Ainsley's hair is, and it was taking a lot longer to do something with.. Ainsley is no longer quite as excited, lol. Doesn't she look thrilled?

Girl Talk

THE PARTY GUESTS!

(The before and afters)

MEIRA

BROOKLYN

HALLEE

SADIE

ADDI

THE WHOLE GANG!!

After being pampered, you gotta do lunch. :) I mean.. all dressed up, and no where to go is no fun! So we went to Hagermann's, a great local bakery cafe close by.

And again, the beautiful princesses!
Thanks for coming everyone!! Ainsley had such a blast!
The whole way home she kept saying "i really like my friends" :D