Goodness it's busy around here!!  Its the kind of busy that sounds like a five year old talking and talking and talking, seriously about 8 thousand words a day, a two year old asking obvious questions like, "is that your hat, are you wearing a shirt, are you my mom," and a very impatient three week old who MUST.EAT.NOW.   And we couldn't be happier, or to be honest - more exhausted ;)  However, because of the swimming lessons, and the potty training and the CONSTANT nursing, there are far more pictures on this post than there are stories.  And because Ashley is still a novelty and my computer is dying, most of the pictures are of her, but our other girls are also here, and wonderful and enjoying the summer!

Ashley is not impressed with swimming lessons

My would be 39 week belly shot = 10 day old baby

Jordan made a caption for this one, "You want to put that thermometer WHERE?!"

 Love that she fits right next to me while we read to the big girls!

Newborn pictures!

 Love my babies!

 PS- these were pictures of the actual pictures....

 She looks so small in the swing!

 Heidi watching Michaela swim

 A BLONDE baby?!

Two weeks old!

 She has no concept of getting anywhere on time.......

Park date!

Big beautiful blue eyes :)

All the loves of my life

Baby Ashley is here!!

We have our baby!!!  Ashley Morgan Fife was born on July 11, 2012 at 11:52pm.  She weighs a whopping 5lbs14oz and is 17inches long :)   If you only want to see pictures, here they are.  If you like the birth story, it's posted below.  It does contain 3 DAYS of labor, so it  makes for a good read :)  

After a flawless pregnancy, at week 34, my blood pressure was a little bit high, nothing alarming, but higher than it was my entire pregnancy.  I didn't have any side effects and all my tests came back ok, so I was free to live my normal, pregnant life.  I felt wonderful and was truly enjoying my pregnancy.  At my 36 week appointment, it was even higher, enough so that my dr put me on modified bed rest and sent me in for an ultrasound to check baby girl.  The ultrasound showed that the fluid level was at an eight, normal being 5-20, so all was still ok to keep her cooking.  That was Friday the 6th.  I spent the weekend on modified bedrest, only leaving the house to go to church on Sunday.  I felt wonderful!!  

Sunday morning at about 3am I woke up to some fairly heavy bleeding, so I called the dr and she said to head to labor and delivery just to check things out because my blood pressure was something to keep an eye on.  I asked permission first and drove myself there :)  Still feeling great!  They monitored me, and baby, and other than blood pressure, all vitals were perfect, her heartbeat was exactly on target and never faltered.  Anyway, Monday mid morning, I went in for another ultrasound to check for a placenta abruption, and we found out that in those two days her fluid went down to a three.  Not great - so my doctor let me know that I would be being induced immediately.  Also not great - I had the car with carseats, Jordan was at home with the girls and my mom and dad were up in Seattle signing paperwork on their new house.  Did I also mention that my sister and her three kids were in town to visit BEFORE I had the baby??  After a bit of scrambling, my mom made it down that evening, Jordan got a ride to the hospital and took the van home, then came back to be with me.  All the while I am having contractions every 2 minutes, and hoping for a baby by Tuesday morning :)  

Imagine my disappointment (and PAIN!) when I was only at a 1 when she checked me and only 20%effaced, and baby was still at a -3.  More pitocin and cervidel for me, and all day on Tuesday of contractions every 2 min - plus you can't have pain medicine until a 4 or 5, they gave me something through the iv, but it loses effectiveness with each use :)  PS- I actually still felt great, hungry as I was on a no food diet, and bored because daytime tv sucks, but actually enjoying the hang out time with Jordan.  

Tuesday Evening - I must be dilated right!?  - NOPE still a ONE.  Pit all night :)  All the while Miss Ashley (who had not been named yet) was being a trooper and keeping a steady heartbeat so there was no rush to get her out.  Plus she wasn't quite 37 weeks so the longer the better...

Wednesday morning - Dilated?  Nope :)  Pitocin all day.  Also, I have high blood pressure, so they won't let me walk around to get her moving down so I took a lot of naps with my contractions every 1-2 minutes :)

Wednesday Evening - My dr came back and said that if nothing had happened by morning, she was going to do a c-section, but really thought we could still do this.  I am game, I still feel ok and Baby was 37 weeks as of today (the 11th).  My doctor leaves and says if there is an emergency to let the on call know, but she was sure she would see me in the morning for a lunchtime baby.  Oh yes, and I can eat something :)  I ate a bagel and was going to hop in the shower.  And THEN - I started passing MAJOR blood clots and my blood pressure spiked.  They put me on oxygen, called the on call dr who said she was on her way for my c-section, that night!  I got prepped and ready, and we waited anxiously to meet our baby girl.

In the delivery room, they did the spinal, and we really wanted her out by midnight, as it was Jordan's mom's 50th birthday that day, so they could share a birthday!  The dr was asking me if I could feel what she was doing as the test before they started cutting - AND I COULD FEEL EVERYTHING!  The anesthesiologist said that almost NEVER happens and that it must be because I am so tall, he would just give me another one and hope that worked - otherwise, with my blood pressure, they would just put me under general to get things going..... Second spinal in, I am thankfully numb and Jordan came in.  He was so helpful!  I made him hold my hands above my head the whole time, as my instinct was to reach and stop the dr from all the pulling and tugging I felt.  Such a weird feeling - numb, but not really, it felt like they were pulling the skin off my bones, it didn't hurt but I did feel it...you know??

SO, at 11:52 pm they pulled out our 5lb14.5oz baby girl and we fell in love!  She is such a sweet baby, it took a while to name her, nothing either of us liked seemed to fit her but on the second day in the hospital Ashley just came to us and it felt right.  Morgan is Jordan's grandma's maiden name and a wonderful person to name a baby after.  

So here we are, three beautiful daughters, and loving it. We are so blessed and just fall in love with them more every day.  Ashley nurses well, is growing and just fits in our hearts and family so perfectly.  In love just does not do the feeling justice. I am sure there are details I should have added, and a few I could have done without, but I only have this ten minutes to write this down!  

Fife Update!

It's the end of June!!  At our house, its not only the month before baby sister is due, its the mark of a very big milestone for Jordan and I:  We have lived in this house longer than we have lived at any other house since we got married seven years ago!!!  Crazy right? Especially because we have been here a mere 14 months ;)

In other news, Shawnie and Tyler went to Prom and looked beautiful and had a blast!

Michaela wore Heid's swimming bloomers on her head all afternoon....

We gave up on waiting for the sun and rode bikes in the house....

The girls got Jordan this superfun game for Father's Day - its a cat in the hat game with lots of silly challenges, but so perfect for them - they play it all the time :)  Jordan also turned 30 on Father's day!

Reagan and Michaela on the slip and slide!

Lucy, Reagan, Michaela and Heidi - we love cousins!

 Miles giving it a try :)

Michaela had her first dance recital on the 16th - I was the room mom for the event - LOTS OF GIRLS!!  Michaela colored the whole time while waiting her turn to go on.  I wish I could post the video!

All the Kresge family minus baby girl who has yet to grace us :)

More cousin pictures!!

 Love my sun babies :)

 Swimming lessons!  She is learning the alligator crawl

A few Michaela'isms"

I painted accent walls in the nursery and in the girls' rooms.  Yellow for baby girl and pink in theirs.  The yellow is bright and vibrant and the pink is fairly conservative - I really don't want hot pink walls!  Anyway, I took Michaela in to show her the yellow first and she loved it, calling it bright and sunshiney.  Then I took her into her room and said, "Surprise!  You got a pink wall!"  She slooped her shoulders and said, "Kinda underwhelming after the yellow mom, but (and gave me two thumbs up) thanks anyway for trying!"

Mommy: Girls, what should we do today?
Michaela:  I think we need to have a great day - lets start painting some pictures now, then swing by Panera for lunch and make a trip to target for a toy and a slurpee on the way home.  If you can help us out with rides and a little bit of money mom, that would be great!
Heidi:  Yeah, a slurpee!!!

Heidi's turn:

Heidi: Mommy, I pee in my pool
Mommy: Heidi, why did you do that?  We need to go in the potty!
Heidi:  Because now I don't need to go in the potty, and I didn't go in my diaper!  Good job huh mom?!

Heidi:  Wanna play I spy?
Mommy/Michaela: Sure you first Heidi
Heidi:  I spy something yellow - the sun!
Heidi:  I spy something purple- Roonies Glasses!
Heidi:  I spy something red- my shoes!!!

Mommy/Michaela:  Good job, this is a new way to play!!!!

Anyway, we are enjoying our summer, June has flown by, and hopefully July will too - we can't wait to hold our baby!

Yes, she DID that and Said that!

Here we are - less than nine weeks away from my due date!  Where has the time gone??  We are loving and living life these days, my pregnancy has been flawless, I seriously have enjoyed all of it!  My only complaint comes from my silly leg that swells and bruises if I do too much during the day.  I feel so great though and want to get so much "spring" stuff done, that that is often the case.  Oh well, if my kids are REALLY good during the day, they get to rub lotion on my legs and feet while I read goodnight stories......hehehehe :)

Here are a few Michaela/Heidi sayings, Heidi is quickly catching up to her sister on the wit/shock factor!

Michaela: looks at me with a  scowl and FLICKS water on my face.

Mommy:  MICHAELA, what are you doing?  What just happened?!
Michaela:  I just wanted you to know what it was like mom, how do you like it?

Mommy: LIKE WHAT?!?!

Michaela:  Getting food dumped on you (flicks me again, with vigor!)  What do you think?

Mommy:  WHAT????  STOP flicking me!!!

Michaela:  Well right now you are just dumping water and chewed brownies on my baby sister and she can't help it so I want you to know what its like so you stop doing that to her.  (flicks me AGAIN)

Mommy:  That is not how it works, the baby is in a special bubble, keeping her dry - now QUIT FLICKING ME!!!!!

Mommy:  Heidi, quit whining, just be happy and ask for what you want - no tears ok?

Heidi:  I can't mommy, I just a whiney Chicken baby, I need to cry!

Michaela:  Heidi, lets race - I WIN!

Heidi:  Ok, I LOSE!

Mommy:  Heidi, its ok if you win, Michaela doesn't always get to win 

Heidi:  No mommy, I get to LOSE all the time - Hooray!!!

Heidi:  What's that mommy?

Mommy: It's make-up to make me look pretty

Heidi: Did it work?

Mommy:  Yep- see?

Heidi: No - it must be broken make-up, try new batteries!

30 weeks :)

Too tiny to hold up her bloomers

 

 Soooo...she wears them on her head

She prefers to sit in a bucket rather than the pool

Spring Break Trip!

I have to start off by showing you how delicious my girls are - to DIE FOR right??! I could just kiss them and squeeze them all day long - but they like to eat and play and other non kissing things... Anyway, here are two recent pictures of Heidi and Michaela.

And now for the spring break recap. First stop, Boise with the Winns! We were too busy with our one and only day to take many pictures, but I did get this gem of all the Kresge grandkids. What beauties!

And this is out of order, but oh well, we stopped in WY to see my grandma, Michaela taught her how to use her Kindle Fire :)

The main stop was in Utah, for Fife reunion, all the brother's and their families, along with Shawnie and grandma and grandpa - fun crowd!

Fife Grandkids - they were on a deer hunt with Grandpa, Michaela was carrying some map of the local area and kept saying,"According to our map, we are at 7 degrees norther than last time." I told you - she is delicious!

We did a little fishing
A little James Bond shoot the other guy game on the Sega game thing.
A little more fishing...

All the Fife kids - Jon and Marti should be so proud!!

Arm wrestling over the one can of spaghettios......
Michaela got pretty into this!

Daddy taking his girls.... Fishing....
The one picture I have of me on this entire trip!
Yes, I let them jump off the couch onto the lovesack - they had a great time and by the time it was over I wasn't cringing at every jump - just most of them!
Corban pretty much beat all the uncles at James Bond shoot the other guy! (Clearly I have no idea what it was called....)
Aunt Tikla and Michaela took our dessert orders on our last night there
And because of the deliciousness - and my lack of posts - here are my girls on Halloween, of LAST year. A Mermaid and a Princess. Self dressed, obviously.