One Busy Week

The week of May 18-24 was a busy week for our family. We had school ending, softball, doctor appointments for me and Grant, Little Entertainers rehersals, swim therapy, birthday parties, and then baby Hallie decided to make her debut. There are a few new posts that I've done today to try to catch up on our busy week. So make sure you scroll down to see all of them.

End Of The Year Programs

Mikkele had her end of the year program Tuesday evening, May 19th. We had heard that the 3rd grade always puts on the best program and the kids had been learning songs for months, so we were excited to see what they were going to present. They didn't disappoint. The title of the program was "We Make A Rainbow". Each class represented a different culture. They sang a lot of different songs from a lot of different countries/continents/cultures. Mikkele's class did a few Polynesian type songs. They did the Hawaiian Stick Dance, the girls did the Hukilau, the boys did the Huka. Mikkele was also chosen as one of four girls out of the entire 3rd grade to do a duet to a song called "Up Up With People". The whole 3rd grade sang the 1st verse, then the 4 girls sang the 2nd verse. She did a great job, and the program was a huge success. 1st Verse of "Up Up With People"Gigi and Mikkele singing the 2nd Verse of "Up Up With People"

The Hawaiian Stick Dance

Mikkele, Gigi, and Rietta doing the Hukilau.

Grant had his preschool program on Wednesday May 20th. The theme for the program was everything bugs. They sang some songs that they have learned this year about bugs and then we watched a little DVD that showed pictures of things the kids had done over the year. It was really cute. Lucky for him (and me) he gets to have a small break and then go back for 6 weeks of summer school. It's only 2 days a week instead of 4, but anything is better than nothing. He is a kid that really relys on a good schedule, and school helps to provide that consistency. He has an amazing teacher, Miss Rachael and amazing one-on-one aid, Miss Britt. They are so good to our little Granty. Now we just have to wait 2 more weeks and he gets to go back. :)

Miss Rachael

Miss Britt

Happy Birthday Mom!

I just wanted to wish my mom a Happy Birthday! Since I was in the hospital on her birthday, I didn't get to do a proper shout out to her. My mom is AMAZING! She does so much for our family. My kids love her so much and love to spend time with her. There is never a dull moment when Grandma Roberts is around. Thanks mom for all you do for us. And thanks in advance for forgiving me for posting the last picture on here! I love you!

Our Baby Girl

Last Thursday afternoon (May 21st) I went in for my weekly non-stress test. The day before I had been having a bunch of contractions and it didn't dawn on me until right before my appointment, but her movements had gone down to almost nothing. With my history with Grant, I was slightly concerned, but glad to be going in for the NST. As they were monitoring her, her resting heart rate was looking good, but they also like to see an elevated heart rate when she is active. She was not wanting to be active though, which for her is unusual. We shocked her once and she kicked for a second, but then went back to sleep. After a few minutes we shocked her again and that really got her mad. But it was good to know that she was doing ok. Also during the NST it was showing that I was having some contractions. They were about 3-6 minutes apart. They weren't too strong, but her heart rate would drop just slightly with each contraction. I told the nurse my concerns with the lack of movement and how that was what happened with Grant and she said she would talk to the doctor and they would go over my NST. After a few minutes she came back in and told me that with my history, and with the slight decrease in heart rate with the contractions that they were going to go ahead and take the baby. She made a call to my OB/GYN and I made a call to Jeremy and we got set to have this little baby a few days early. It all happened really quick. Within about 2 1/2 hours from the time of my NST, I was prepped and she was out. She was born at 6:43pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz and was 20 inches long. Jeremy went with the nurses down to the nursery to get her all cleaned up while I was getting all stiched up. I sat an waited in recovery for what seemed like forever, and then they moved me down to my mother/baby room. I still hadn't heard much about the baby. Come to find out, her blood sugar was low at birth so they had to feed her a small bottle and make sure her blood sugar came up. So that was what delayed the process of getting her to me. After not being able to see Grant for 3 days after he was born, I might have been a little paranoid about waiting for an hour. Once they came up she was perfect! She had her eyes wide open and ready to take everything in. It took us a little over 24 hours to decide on a name. After all the disagreeing that we did over the last 9 months, I don't htink that's too bad. We finally came up with Hallie May Gallier. And just to clarify, it's pronounced hal-lee, not hay-lee. The May part of her name is kind of a family tradition. We all know my name is April, and Jeremy has a sister that is named January. So I thought it fit to use her birth month. If she was born in November or December or something like that, I would't have used that, but I think May fits and sounds cute.
Over the next few days in the hospital thing went really good. Her blood sugar continued to look good and we didn't have to worry about that any more. She is nursing like a champ, which is a big relief for me. Both Mikkele and Grant struggled with nursing. Her bilirubin levels were a little elevated so we had to have them checked the day after we got out of the hospital. Those results showed that she had doubled her levels and would need to go under lights for a bit. The night spent under the lights was horrible. She did not like being naked, unswaddled, and laying in a tanning bed of sorts. Thank goodness her levels came down enough the next day to get off the lights. Her levels are still coming down, but she is doing a lot better.
Thanks to all those who came to visit or called while we were in the hospital. When we got home, we were met with lots of pink ribbons and bows and some cute welcome home signs made by Alisha, Holly, Mikkele, Grant, Dillon, and Connor. It was really cute.
Life with a new baby has been a little challenging. Hallie is doing pretty good. She is doing better at night and staying awake more during the day. Grant has had the hardest time. He is used to being able to have his mommy just about whenever he wants, but with the new baby, and me having a c-section, I'm not able to hold or carry him as much as he would like. Hopefully he will adjust here soon. Mikkele is having a blast having a real live baby to play with. We already knew that she was an awesome big sister, but she has really stepped up even more. What would we do without our big sister! Speaking of people we can't live without...a HUGE shout out to all the people that have helped us out while we were in the hospital, and even now. Holly and Ryan and Glenn and Dorene helped with the kids while we were in the hospital, Alisha came into town for the first few days that we were home from the hospital, and my mom is here now helping for another week. You guys are all awesome, we would not be able to do this without you!!!

The Big 3-0...Better Late Than Never

So yes I know it has taken me FOREVER to post about my resent descent over the hill. It's not because I'm having trouble coping with the fact that I'm getting older. It's more because of, well...how did my darling child put it the other day....I'm SLOW! She has been very kind to point out my slowness lately. Whether it be physically or mentally. Don't you love children??? Anyway on to the big day, or actually I should say days because there was like 3 days of celebrating my oldness.

Thursday morning I woke up to my lawn being plastered with signs that said, "Over the Hill" and "30". Thank you Tina for announcing to the entire neighborhood how old I am.

The rest of Thursday was spent doing the regular day to day mom/wife/housekeeper stuff. We went to dinner at Winger's that night and came home and opened presents from my cute family. One of my presents was a spa foot bath thingy. Mikkele insisted on staying up late and giving me a pedicure. My poor pregnant feet have been looking really bad lately, so it felt good. I guess that makes up for all the "slow" comments lately.
Look at how swollen my legs, feet, and ankles are.

Friday night I was told that we had dinner plans with Tina and Lance and that we were going to PF Changs. When we were taken back to be seated the table was set for 16 rather than for 4. There had been a little party planning going on without me knowing. Over the next 30 minutes, our closest couples friends showed up. It was a fun surprise. Some of these people I've been friends with since I was really young and others more resently in the last couple of years. It was fun watching all of the different personalities come together. We had a great time. There were a lot of laughs. Thanks Tina and Alisha for putting together such a fun night, and thanks to everyone else that came, it really made the day memorable. Here are some pics of the night. I don't know why, but I think someone has their eyes closed in almost every picture. Oh well.

As the guests were arriving.

Some of the group.

More of the group.

Even more of the group.

Alisha and I cheesing it.

Me and Rachel. I was crying cause I was laughing so hard.

Alisha and my cheesy brother in law Albert.

My birthday cheesecake was amazing! It was huge too. Needless to say it got passed around for everyone to enjoy.

Sunday we got together with the Gallier family for cake and icecream and some games. Mikkele insisted on making my cake. She did a good job too. She is really enjoying learning how to cook lately. The only bad part of that night is that I lost our game of Ticket to Ride. Don't you people know that I'm supposed to win on my birthday??? Oh well, I guess I have to let other people win sometimes too.

Isn't she the cutest little baker?

A little quality control is a must when cooking.

Overall it was a fun weekend filled with friends and family. I definitely came away feeling very loved and actually not feeling too old. :)

Pregnant Mommies

I've said before how 3 of my best friends were pregnant and how the 4 of us are due withing 7 weeks of each other. I've really wanted to get a pic of the 4 of us together, but it just hasn't happened. We're never all together at the same time. Two of them have now delivered, so it's really not going to happen now. I got a pic at the scrapbook expo of Me, Tina and Michelle and now here's a couple pictures of Me, Tina and Jenny. You can really tell a difference in what a month can do when you're pregnant.

I liked this picture because you can't really tell how pregnant I am in the middle of Tina and Jenny, but then Alisha made us turn to the side. We joked that they were our mug shots. And I just noticed that Jenny's obnoxious husband is giving her bunny ears in this picture. Nice Aaron.

Now with this shot there's no hiding the fact that we are all pregnant.

Jenny ended up delivering 5 days after this picture was taken, and Tina delivered the day after that. Jeremy was starting to get a little freaked out that we were going to do this one right after the other, but I'm bound and determined to have this kid keep cooking for another 3 1/2 weeks.

Just to update everyone on how things are going with my pregnancy...I have now officially made it past the time when I had Grant. This is a big step for me to get past. I know that he wasn't really born that early (35 1/2 weeks), and that he had complications that caused him to be the way that he is, but I'm still happy to have made it past that point. Because of my history my doctor wants me to do non-stress tests. I went in for my first one this week. Everything is looking pretty good right now. My blood pressure continues to be great. I am always worried about my blood pressure because of how much water I am retaining in my legs, but every time I go in my blood pressure looks great. My amniotic fluid levels are looking good. I had 3 contractions during the 20 minutes that she was monitoring me. She seemed a little worried about this, but said as long as they don't remain consistent we're ok. I am still having some, but they aren't consistent enough to worry me, yet. We'll see how that goes over the next few weeks. Like I said...I'm bound and determined to have this baby on May 27th when we have it all scheduled, for my sanity and everyone else's sanity. I'll keep you updated.

Name Help

I think most people know that we have had a hard time trying to find a name for our little girl that is going to be here in less than 5 weeks. We can't agree on anything, well almost anything. There is one name that we do agree on, but the meaning of the name is ill-fated and unlucky. There are a couple other meanings that are stupid as well, but the French meaning is unlucky and Gallier is French. We have gone back and forth on the idea of it matters and no it doesn't matter. I guess the biggest reason that we think that it matters is because Mikkele and Grant have awesome meanings to their names. Can we go from awesome to unlucky??? So I'm putting the question out there to everyone that cares to answer. What would you do???

If you had a baby name that you liked, but then learned the meaning for the name meant unlucky, could you still name your child that?

Yes, name meanings don't matter to me.

No, that would be like cursing your child for ever.

ugg boot

Easter 2009

We had a busy Easter weekend. The Saturday before Easter we had a ward Easter activity. It was cold and rainy outside, so they moved all of the festivities inside. They had some crafts for the kids, then they did an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids.

Mikkele helping Grant do one of the crafts.

Grant during the hunt.

That afternoon we dyed eggs with Dillon and Connor. The kids had fun drawing silly things on the eggs, and making different color concoctions by dipping an egg into many different colors. A lot of our eggs turned out brown, instead of the bright colorful Easter colors.

Mikkele and Dillon

Connor, Mikkele, and Dillon

Easter morning I was in the shower and Mikkele comes in yelling "I got Bolt, I got Bolt, I got Bolt!" I didn't quite understand what she was saying at first. I thought she was hurt or something, but once she slowed down and turned down the volume of her voice I understood what she was saying. She had peeked in her basket and found out that she got the movie Bolt. She was just a little egg-cited I guess. :P (Yes, I know I'm a dork)

The baskets before they were torn into.

Mikkele finding a kite in her basket.

Mikkele and Sparkey helping Grant open his basket. This is a little light ball that the cat was going crazy about.

After opening their baskets, we hurried and got ready for church. My cousin Chase had his mission homecoming that day. So we spent the first part of our Easter up in Draper with the Jones side of the family. Chase did a good job on his talk and it was good to see him again after 2 years.

The kids in their Easter outfits.

Sunday afternoon we went over to our friends, the Sabin's. We enjoyed a nice meal, some Easter egg hunting, and some card games. Thanks for letting us come and spend Easter with you guys. We had a good time.

Daddy and Grant hunting for eggs.

Mikkele's loot.

Side note: There are a few posts from today, so keep scrolling down.
Also...Mikkele has finally updated her blog with 2 new posts. Check them out. If you have not been invited to see her blog and would like to, let me know.