Let's Go Fly A Kite!

About a year ago Brian came home from fishing, not with any fish, but with a really nice dragon kite that he found by the lake- fabric, it had the tail, a ton of string and everything! How cool is that? So he cleaned it up and its been our kite since- well, Sadie's kite as she'll tell you :)

One of the problems with Cedar is that its ALWAYS windy. But it does make for some good kite-flying :) And now that the smoke is FINALLY clearing up from that fire by New Harmony, we decided to go walk to a nearby park and take our kite with us for some fresh air. (Ok, not totally fresh- its still pretty smokey- but freshER than it has been)

Sadie and Brian got to do all the fun kite stuff while Ambrie and I hung out and took the pictures.

You can tell it was pretty windy by how Sadie's pigtails are going straight forward! LOL

Our spec of a kite right before.....

...it crash landed in someone's yard- oops!

So while Brian got his kite back, Sadie went and played. Two-year-olds can't just wait around for fun :) They make fun happen!

Two Months Old Already!

Ambrie turned two months old on Sunday! So here are some of her latest photos :)
She smiles alot now, but I tell ya', it's hard to capture on film. We've managed to get a few little ones though :) She just keeps getting cuter and cuter and more and more fun!

Today we took her to the doctor for her 2-month checkup...and shots :(......and she's growing really well. She weighed 11 lbs. even and was 23.5 inches long. They told me she was in the 56 percentile for weight and 86 for length- I think we're going to have a tall one on our hands :)

I don't know why this one keeps loading sideways. Its blurry, but I love Sadie's kissy face :)

This is what she looks like when she's sick of taking pictures :)

Finally Updating!

I've noticed with two kids I have a much harder time getting to the computer- or if I do, I'm generally holding Ambrie, which makes it hard to do much besides checking out other peoples' blogs and facebook. So now that I've got both kids asleep, and Brian around in case Ambrie wakes up, I'm updating :)

Things have been going good still. We just got back from a family birthday party that was a LOT of fun. I posted about it below this one. Its always good to get all the family together :)

I also feel like I'm getting the hang of having two kids instead of one, although there are still days where I feel like I didn't get a thing done, we haven't done anything particularly fun or exciting, and my house is a mess. But I think we all have those days, right?

Ambrie will be seven weeks tomorrow- almost two months! I can't believe it. And I'll have to go back to work four weeks from tomorrow :( I'm already dreading it because I know how fast it will come. But I feel good about Sadie's daycare, which will also take Ambrie. The two women that run it are sisters and have been doing it for 18 years. We went over to visit the other day so I could fill out Ambrie's paperwork and just watching them with her, and how they spoke with the older kids who wanted to see Ambrie, made me alot more comfortable with it. They told me that pretty much one of them will be in charge of Ambrie and will hold her most of the time she's there, because its safer for her (with all the other kids around), plus they just like to :) Jana, the younger sister is just a little older than me, and she's been debating whether or not she wants more kids, but she figures in the meantime, she'll just spoil mine :) I'm so grateful we've found these guys. They've been incredible with Sadie- she LOVES going there, and I've always felt really comfortable with them. They're the only babysitters Sadie's had where I didn't feel like I had to call and check up on her all the time, and Sadie's had her fair share of babysitters. So even though it will be hard to go back to work, knowing that Ambrie's in a safe place with loving people definitely makes it easier- I'm sure I'll still bawl like a baby the first few days though :(

Speaking of work, Brian's now working for himself fixing computers and printers. Its been kind of stressful doing this right after having a baby- there's been so much to get done with paperwork and everything, but we're starting to settle into it now. So far we've only advertised in Lincoln County. He was planning to work there and in Cedar, but he's had so many calls in Nevada that he hasn't had time to do anything here! So if it slows down out there will advertise here too. I'm really grateful that he's been busy though. I was so worried about not making ends meet at first, since it usually takes a while to get businesses off the ground. But so far things are going well and I'm feeling more and more confident that this was the right thing for us to do.

Now that I've babbled on and on, how about some new pictures! These aren't of any event in particular, just some new ones of the girls :)

I can't get Sadie to smile for the camera anymore without giving a really cheesy grin. This is the first time Sadie held Ambrie all by herself though without Ambrie crying like crazy. Yay!!!



This is the first smile we've been able to get on camera. She's really smiley in the morning, then kind of gets grumpier as the day goes on- definitely a morning person! :)



Here are just some random ones of the girls that I think are cute :)

Family Birthday Party!

We just got back from a fun-filled trip to Panaca where we celebrated not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR family birthdays. Yep, four of us have birthdays in August, so we have a party for all of them every year. So happy birthday Aunt Rie, Uncle Steve, Shane and Jazmin!!!

Sadie and Curtis started the day with some sword fighting. They were running around chasing eachother with those things for so long! It was so funny and cute! Curtis is Sadie's cousin and probably her best friend. They get along so well (most of the time). I'm so glad she's got cousins her age to grow up with :)


Grandma Rie with Ambrie


Curtis showing his newest little cousin some love


My grandma and Ambrie

The birthday people: Jazmin, Uncle Steve, Aunt Rie, and Shane

These three make a pretty cute group :) As I said before, I'm so glad Sadie's got some cousins her age to play with and grow up with.

One Month Old!

Today Ambrie is a whole month old! I can't believe how fast its flown by! And she's grown so much from when she was born. So here she is, one month old Ambrie :)

I think this picture is so cute!




*sigh*...already having sibling rivalries ;)


Sadie is seriously such a good big sister! Anytime Ambrie starts fussing or crying Sadie tells her "Ambrie, its ok" and tries to comfort her. Usually this just makes Ambrie more mad ( I think it has something to do with Sadie's volume (loud) and Sadie's hair falling in her face) but Sadie's heart sure is in the right place and I'm so proud of her! I think Sadie's pretty proud of herself too, because she always tells us that she's a good big sister too :) She also loves to hold Ambrie, and gets really excited if I let her hold Ambrie by herself. Unfortunately, in these pictures, Ambrie's not as happy as Sadie...they're still cute though :)





And last but not least, I just had to post this because it makes me laugh! The other day I was doing some things on the computer for Brian's business and put a movie on for Sadie in my room, which is just down the hall. She usually plays while she's watching and so I can hear her every now and then. Well, it got really quiet for a few minutes, so I decided to check on her. When I walked in I found her with the baby lotion, and I promise, this picture does NOT do the mess justice.... :)

Catching Up

Ok, so today I'm playing catch up with my emails and blog! I feel so behind! But here is a little update into our lives.

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has congratulated us and wished us well. It really means alot, and I'm sorry I haven't thanked everyone individually- one of these days, I will!

Ambrie is now two weeks old, and it has just flown by! She's been such a good baby. She seriously has had a good sleep schedule from about four days old- she eats around midnight, around 3:30 a.m., around 6:30 a.m. and around 9:00 a.m.- how awesome is that? And she sleeps the rest of the time! She's starting to be awake more and more during the day, which has been fun. She really likes to snuggle, and seriously, she hardly ever cries :) She's just an angel :)




Sadie still has her jealous moments, but overall she's an awesome big sister. She loves to hold Ambrie, and she always tells her how cute she is and that "its ok Ambrie" if she fusses or cries. I will admit though, its been hard for me not to be able to give Sadie as much attention as she and I are used to. I really feel bad because we used to go to the park every day and just run around town and stuff, but I've been kind of a homebody with a newborn. Brian's been really awesome though and has tried to do some special fun things with Sadie. He'll take her to different parks, and he took her fishing up at Duck Creek one saturday, which Sadie LOVED! He's planning to take her again soon :)





Don't ask me why, but when they went fishing the only pictures Brian took of Sadie were of her eating Nutter Butters....LOL


So in a nutshell, that's what's been going on with us. I know its not terribly thrilling, but we're just enjoying this time as a newly expanded family :)

Announcing Our Newest Addition!

Ambrie Solei McNeel was born Tuesday, June 23 at 3:34 PM!

She weighed 6 lbs, 2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long

She came a little earlier than we expected. I was scheduled to be induced on Thursday, but when I went to my doctor's appointment Tuesday I had a lot of protein in my urine and high blood pressure, plus I've been SUPER swollen for the past few months. The doctor told me "I think we need to get this baby out soon". I said "soon, as in, Thursday?" and he said "no, soon as in now. I want you to go down to maternity." So Brian and Sadie (who were there with me) ran home to get some things and Brian took Sadie to daycare for the day. I was kind of freaked out, because I wasn't expecting everything to happen so fast, but obviously it all turned out ok :)

I will say, the one really hard thing that happened was once I got the epidural, I dilated from a 5+ to a 10 in about half and hour- and the epidural hadn't kicked in all the way! I was in a ton of pain, and I thought it was from the catheter the nurse had just put in, and she told me, "no, the baby's coming NOW". I was like "NO!" because I could feel everything, I swear and I was so scared. And it really did hurt- I totally look up to women that do it completely natural because I at least had a little relief. But I didn't have to push long before our beautiful new little girl came, and she was worth all of it! I mean, the bedrest, the difficult pregnancy, and the labor pain that I really didn't want to experience but had to anyway ;) We're so happy though and excited to have her here :)

This picture makes me smile :)

Sadie's first look at her new sister! She's doing better than I thought she would. She was really excited when she got to the hospital and was so cute with Ambrie! She kept kissing her and talking to her :) Since we've been home, she still wants to hold her sometimes, but not as often and she gets bored with it fast. She's been a little jealous, asking me to hold her if she notices I'm feeding Ambrie, but I really think she's doing great with the whole thing :)

Brian and his "mini-me"

Happy to be a big sister!

Just Four Days Left!

And I'm running emotions between "yes, finally!" and being nervous about having another baby. Mostly though, I'm just excited.

I am a little worried too though because today it looks like Sadie is coming down with a cold :( Mostly she's just been really congested and hasn't wanted to eat much- she hasn't had a fever or cough yet, so I'm hoping its just a little thing that goes away soon. I'm going to take her to the doctor tomorrow anyway though because

1) if she's sick, I want her to feel better before I have to leave and can't take care of her. I'd feel HORRIBLE if she got really miserable and I wasn't there

2) I REALLY don't want to get sick right before I give birth (who wants to go through childbirth AND be sick while doing it?)

3) I don't want to risk having the new baby get sick from any of us who might catch it!

Hopefully she just has a really mild cold, but this close to my due date, I don't want to take any chances. I'm kind of a hypochondriac that way. If she is sick, I think I'll hold off on getting induced, but I'm still due in six days, so I still just want all of us to be healthy. I'll keep everyone posted, and OF COURSE as soon as the baby comes, I'll see if I can get Brian to post some pics :)

I Moved My Due Date Up a Couple of Days

I realized the other day that our insurance deductible for the year is almost met (yay!), but it starts over July 1st (boo!).  Which got Brian and I talking about how we need to have the baby and get out of the hospital before July 1st or we'd probably have to pay twice as much.  Who wants to do that, right?

So at my doctor's appointment this morning, I talked to him about it and we decided to induce me on the 25th (yay, three whole days early!) if I haven't gone into labor by then.  I'm excited to know I'll have the baby a few days sooner, but I'm also kind of nervous about being induced.  Who knows though, maybe the baby will come on her own.

I was also excited this morning to find out I'm dilated to a one!  Yippee!  I know its not much, but at least its something :)  I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high yet though, because I was dilated to a two with Sadie for a couple of weeks.  Still though, the end is in site!!!!  And I think we've got everything ready (clothes, itty-bitty diapers, blankets...), so this baby can come any time she wants!!!  I'm so excited!

37 Weeks Today!

And I think we've got everything ready other than buying some itty-bitty diapers!