Introducing...

Jaycie Rose Allen, the newest sweet addition to our family, was born Thursday weighing 6 lbs 6 oz and measuring 20 inches long. I'm proud to say she has a beautiful head of dark hair. We'll see how long it lasts. She is beautiful and sweet and perfect and I'm so happy she was born healthy and strong. She came 16 days earlier than expected, but I really had been hoping (and doing a little bit of praying, I'll admit) that she would make an early entrance.

So far, she has been a sweet angel and has let me get a lot of rest. I'm feeling great. The labor went very similarly to that of my boys, with my water breaking at 3 in the morning and no contractions starting until I went to the hospital at 9:30 or so and got some pitocin. I was only dilated to about 1 cm. By the time I got to 4 or 5 I was really ready for the epidural, but they were a little slow getting it to me (in my opinion, nothing could have been fast enough) and before it started to really kick in I felt like I was really close to having a baby. But then I complained about feeling a little too much pain on my right side (that's right, I like to feel NO pain) and so they upped my dose of the epidural a bit and by the time the doctor was ready for me to push I could feel absolutely nothing. With my other epidurals I felt no pain, but I could definitely tell when I should push. This time was hard because I pushed for about 40 minutes feeling nothing and probably made no progress. But the doctor and nurses were encouraging and when the epidural finally started wearing off and I could feel the need to push, it only took another 20 minutes or so to get her out.

I'm so happy to have Jaycie here as the newest member of our family. The boys just keep saying how tiny and cute she is. Jordan has many questions about the umbilical cord. They are loving giving her kisses and Jarrett always makes sure to ask me if his face is clean before he kisses her. My mom has been here trying to keep them entertained, and I appreciate her help. I'm in bliss and a little hormonal as today I started crying watching a CMT music video. I can't even remember the last time I cried, but I guess I better warn Josey before things get out of hand. (And just because I'm a little surprised myself, I will let you know that the day before Jaycie's birth I did run 2 miles pushing the boys in the jogging stroller. Who knew I would really run through my whole pregnancy?)

May Snow Day

This is what you get to wake up to in May (and June, and probably July...) when you live here in Wyoming. I know you are jealous! The good news is that the wind isn't blowing! And the boys got to enjoy about 10 minutes of playing outside before Jordan filled Jarrett's coat with snow. Jarrett came in bawling because he was freezing and Jordan was trailing after acting perfectly innocent. I really wanted to stuff some snow down Jordan's coat (which I'm sure Josey would have done), but I resisted the temptation and was actually rewarded a few minutes later listening to Jordan apologize and ask Jarrett's forgiveness. (Remember that last post about being happy every day that I get to stay home with these boys...I think I was feeling a little sappy considering it was Mother's Day.)

I can't believe it's been two months since I last updated my blog. My mind is still blank as to what to say, and I have no pictures. I have been lousy at taking pictures, but I'm sure we have about a billion pictures from Josey's track meets. That's my excuse for having no pictures...he always has the camera. Track season has been tough for him this year because the weather has not been very cooperative. I've been trying really hard to have a positive attitude, but I'm just going to say it...this weather STINKS!! My kids have been wanting to play outside, but over the past month, there have honestly been maybe 4 or 5 days when they could do so without freezing their little bums off or blowing away in this Wyoming wind. Somedays it can be really hard. Anyways, enough of the negative...I just know some warm weather has got to be coming someday...just not this week.

March and April flew by. We spent the first week of April in Montana visiting Josey's family. We thought about going somewhere warm, but it all came down to what the boys wanted to do, which was see their grandpa & grandma. Their favorite thing is to play in the hot tub and they got plenty of time to do that. They also loved going to the auction and just being spoiled.

I think I got hit with the symptoms of "nesting" & spring cleaning at the same time and went a little crazy through the end of March and most of April. I spent a couple of weeks moving the boys downstairs, painting their dresser and closets, organizing the basement, and totally dejunking. It felt so good when I was done because it was like we found a whole extra room, and now we have a little guest room. I'm typically pretty good at getting rid of junk, but I didn't realize we were holding on to quite a few things that we would never need. There are things Josey claims he will need someday, but so far he has never missed anything that was thrown away.

After tackling the basement, I was ready to get to work on the nursery. I've never decorated a nursery before, especially a cute girl one, so I was pretty excited to get to work. After repainting the room twice, I still wasn't satisfied with the color and I spent a lot of nights tossing & turning and stressing about stupid stuff and money and time wasted. This project was not going anywhere close to how I planned it. Let's just say I'm not meant to be a decorator. But once I got everything in there - the wall border, the valances, the crib - it actually looks pretty cute and it seems I spent a lot of time stressing over nothing. I'm very happy with how it turned out; now I just need a baby to go with it. Seven more weeks!

I'm still feeling really good and I'm so lucky to have had such an uneventful and healthy pregnancy thus far. Last week running started getting a little painful, so I might be sticking with walking and the elliptical for the next few weeks, but we'll see. I have the energy for running, but walking around with a hip that I can barely move for the rest of the day doesn't really seem worth it.

And as today is Mother's Day and I have no current pictures, here are a few older pics of my sweet boys who are growing up way too fast. Today we had a lesson in Relief Society on the prophet. I'm reminded of how blessed I have been by choosing to follow the counsel of our prophets and apostles by making motherhood a priority. I have been blessed to be able to stay home with my kids, even being married to a poor old school teacher. When I was younger, I did not see myself staying home with my kids. I saw myself making lots of money! I worked hard to get a good education, and some would say it has gone to waste. But I do not feel this way at all. EVERY DAY I think about how lucky I am to get to be with my kids (even when Jordan says to me at one of my worst moments "Why did you even have kids?"). I am happy and fulfilled and at peace trying to figure out how to teach these sweet spirits with CUTE CUTE bodies and faces how to navigate this confusing world and make good choices. I'm so thankful to be a mom!

What's Happening in Wyoming

Yay! Basketball season is finally over! True, track practice starts in a week, but...I'll forget about that for now and enjoy my husband for a week. We've spent the last two weekends at region and state basketball tournaments. Regionals were in Riverton, WY and Lyle & Jan surprised us by showing up at the first game. The boys were super happy to see them (and Arielle for a day) and it was nice having a little help keeping them under control.

The weekend before regionals, the team had to stay overnight for two away games and because the school district is making so many budget cuts, Josey had to share a full size bed with the other assistant coach. Luckily, they decided to splurge at the tournaments so each of the coaches got their own room, and we decided to make it a fun little family trip. This seemed like a great thing until Jordan came down with a horrible cough and kept us up all night for a couple of nights in a row. Other than that, it was a fun little family trip and the boys got to enjoy plenty of swimming.

Josey is the assistant coach of the Kemmerer girls team, and they surprised a lot of people by making it to the state tournament for the first time in 17 years! The coaches have done so much work with this group of girls, who really do not have a lot going for them athletically, and have not been taught much about basketball through the years. They have seen so much improvement over the last couple of years, and hopefully the program will continue to improve.

This past weekend we traveled to Casper for the state tournament. This time we decided to leave the boys with my parents (thanks a lot mom & dad!). It turned out to be a very good thing we did because Josey & I both came down with a stomach bug that made us pretty miserable for the first day and I'm sure the boys would have been completely miserable too. Besides, I'm sure they had a lot of fun tormenting their grandparents. The basketball team ended up losing both games at state, but they gave it their best shot and were up against some really tough teams.

Other than that, there hasn't been a whole lot going on in our lives. I'm well into the second trimester of my pregnancy (24 weeks) and feeling really good. The hip problem that plagued my running during the first trimester gradually disappeared around the beginning of the second trimester until I felt absolutely no pain at all. I knew it was some weird hormonal thing, even though Josey thought that was the craziest thing he'd ever heard. But it feels great to run with no pain, although it's getting a little bit more uncomfortable each day. I still run about 3-4 miles a day, but sometimes I feel like I'm moving like a snail. And I'm starting to feel a little embarrassed about the way I look running. Oh well, I'll probably keep doing it for as long as I can and not worry about what people think.

Anyways, here are some pictures from regionals. Luckily Jan brought her camera because I forgot mine.

Isn't She Beautiful?

Yep, that's right. I'm having a girl!! I've been thinking that this one was another boy, but I was wrong. It will be an exciting new adventure to have a sweet baby girl. Now I will have to redo the bedroom and come up with a name, which is my biggest dilemma right now. The girl name I like is the one I've always liked, but it doesn't start with a "J." So I'm thinking of abandoning the "J" name thing, but I'm not sure. I'm not going to tell you the name, but if you have any "J" names you think are cute, feel free to share. Josey won't even tell me the names he's thought of because he knows I will think they are weird. He likes unique, but I do not really care so much about that. Do you think it would matter if we all had "J" names and this baby did not? Just interested in some opinions.

Cute and Not So Cute

Cute: The day before Jordan's birthday he informed me and Josey: "I'm going to be 5 tomorrow, but don't worry, I'll still live with you."

Not So Cute: Tonight I was laying on the couch and Jordan walks over to me and says, "Even if you're getting fat, I'll still love you." (I informed him that I wasn't getting fat; I just have a baby in my belly, thank you very much.)

Happy Birthday Jarrett!

My sweet Jarrett turned 3 this week and Jordan will be 5 this next week. They're growing up so fast! The other day at lunch I was telling Jordan that I was going to be so sad when he went to kindergarten next year and Jarrett said, "Don't be sad, mommy, I'll still be here."

Here are a few pictures from Jarrett's birthday party. Not too exciting, just our little family, but still fun. My parents came up on Friday to visit and bring presents. It's always great when someone will travel to Kemmerer to see us! Jarrett was so cute and grateful for his presents and willing to share everything with Jordan, who wouldn't stop pestering him about it all day.

Yes, there really is a baby inside that belly.

A sled from Grandpa and Grandma C.

Some balloons from Grandpa and Grandma A.

And this is a little note that Jordan wrote for Josey. This writing thing has really been a long time coming for him. He has never wanted to sit down for more than a few minutes and try writing anything. And it's only been a couple of months that he would actually write his name in a straight line. This time he really wanted to tell his dad that he loved golfing with him ("except for when daddy yells at me"... unfortunately, his clearest memory of golfing with Josey was last year when Jordan and Jarrett took off down the fairway for the water stop with Josey yelling at them to come back. They paid him absolutely no heed, and they came home crying to me that they made daddy really mad.) Anyways, I love seeing Jordan so excited about learning and can only hope it lasts when the schools start squelching it out of him with all of their tests. I could hardly believe that my active little boy would concentrate for about 30 minutes on this special note for his daddy.