Fun, Fun, Fun!

So Maddie LOVES her little brother. She wants to be involved in everything (except holding him which I found out yesterday...). She kisses his binki, "points" to his eyes (more like pokes), and is VERY interested in his diaper changes. I'm having a hard time with some of it because she really wants to be involved and "help", but she doesn't know her own strength! Like yesterday, Max was in his carseat and started to fuss a little, so I started to rock it and of course she wanted to join in. But her "rocking" is more like fast jolts over and over! So then I tell her no and she gets sad like she's in trouble :(. Ughhh, it will be much easier I think when she can understand what I'm saying!!

Max is SUCH a good baby. He only wakes up once a night to eat and is usually right back to sleep within 20 or 30 minutes. He only cries when he's hungry and other than that just likes to look around when he's awake. I was SO nervous about the sleepless nights...and yet we aren't sleep deprived at all! It's such a blessing :)

Anyway, here are some pictures of the last couple weeks around here.

Max's first bath at home. Maddie had to be on the counter so she could see everything :)


All clean!!


This was when we tried to get Maddie to hold Max for the first time. This is apparently the only thing she doesn't want to do with Max. After she got a good look at him, she kept trying to scoot away.


I love him in this outfit! Such a stud :)


I love his little eyes. He tries so hard to focus on stuff, but he has a hard time sometimes. He goes crosseyed and it's so cute!

New Boots and Dancing...

This is Madilyn in her dancing clothes! She loves to play dress up and dance around in it. I LOVE her in this!!



Here are Maddie's new boots that I think are ADORABLE!! Luckily, she loves wearing them too. However, when I took her to my mom's yesterday, her dog Sparky was really trying to get the balls on them, and Maddie did NOT enjoy that!! Haha :)

He's HERE!!!

Max Kent Murray arrived on Monday at 5:30 in the afternoon! He was named after both of his Great-Grandpa's on Mike's side of the family. It just so happens that Max was born on October 15th, which is the birthday of his Great-Grandpa Max Dickson! So not only do they share a good name...they share a birthday!

I had gone in for a regular 38 week check-up, and after seeing that my blood pressure was too high, my doctor sent me straight to labor and delivery to be induced. At my appointment, he had checked me and I was 3 cm dialated and almost completely effaced. Max's head was low in my pelvis, and so he said he thought it would be a smooth, quick delivery! Well...we got to labor and delivery, and after one hour and 7 tries at getting my I.V. in, they finally got Pitocin started. I had been on Pitocin for about an hour when the Dr. came in to break my water. However, when he tried to do that, he all of a sudden said "This baby just turned breech; this is a foot down here, not a head." At that point I started bawling!! He got the ultrasound machine, and true enough, he turned breech only about 2 hours after I had been checked. He had been head down the whole pregnancy, and yet, during delivery, he flipped!!

Well, I was quite upset, as I had been expecting an easy, uneventful natural delivery. I REALLY did not want to have a c-section. My doctor said we'd schedule the c-section for 4:30 that afternoon (it was about 1:00) and he'd check me again before I went in for surgery to see if he would flip back by some chance. That didn't happen so I went in for the c-section at about 5:00. It ended up being much better than I thought!! I was really scared during the spinal block and when I started to feel the effects (scary feeling like I was going paralyzed!). Then they brought Mike in and just a few minutes later Max was here!! He came out bum first, and it took quite a bit of pulling and tugging to get to him.

Thankfully he was healthy and about a half hour after I got back to my room they brought him in to us. We just got to snuggle with him and feed him, which was the best thing in the world!! That is what I missed most when Maddie was born; that we didn't get to share that time with her. We just got home from the hospital today and he is such a good baby. He's just content, and a great eater! We LOVE his hair!! All the nurses kept commenting on his beautiful hair and how adorable he is!! Maddie has been really good with him. She laughs when he sneezes and like's to point at him and say "baby". Luckily, she doesn't seem to fazed by any of this; she just kind of goes with the flow!! Anyway, here are some pictures of our boy. We love him and just feel so blessed that we have 2 beautiful, healthy, kids!!

This is right after he was born. Oh, and by the way, he was 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long.


My first good look at his sweet face!


It was so fun giving him his first bottle. He figured it out quick! What a speedy learner :)


I love this picture of them!

More Pictures of Max

Here's Max all ready to go home and see his sister.


I love how small he looks in his carseat!!


Ah, I love those eyes!! They sure aren't open very much though...he's been a sleepy head. His poor little red chin! He sucked on his binki so much, and the blankets at the hospital weren't very soft, so it got all sore. I keep putting Lansinoh on it...so hopefully that will help!


Here is a good picture of his black hair!


And one of us with Max.

The baby's room!

So we've FINALLY finished the baby's room! Yea!! And it's good timing too because it looks like I'll be having him within the next two weeks. Let's hope he stays a BOY because it's a very blue room with "MAX" on the wall! :) Anyway, I just wanted to post some pictures of it.

We went up to Park City with my family for a week a couple of weeks ago and we had such a fun time. We had quite a blizzard while we were there! Madilyn LOVED the constant playing with her cousins. We stayed at the Marriott Summitt Watch right on Main Street; so we walked up and down Main Street a lot and did too much shopping. When we got home Maddie was really sick :(. Turned out she had a double ear infection and a ruptured ear drum. No fun! Anyway, I've included a couple of pictures from the trip as well.





Here is Maddie with her cousin Gracie watching Barney while I was getting ready. They have fun together! Maddie even says "Gacie"!


This day was so pretty up there! We had been in the hotel room all day long, so I finally just went down to the street and let Madilyn wander around. She loved investigating the bushes.

It's been eventful...

So, we've had an eventful couple of weeks!! Mike got laid off from his job at The Generations Network on Wednesday the 5th. We were so worried, especially with the baby coming in October. However, hindsight is 20/20, and we know that everything happens for a reason! Turns out this has been a great blessing.

First, given our situation, his old company is paying for COBRA insurance for October so that we're covered when the baby comes. That's a big worry off our backs because COBRA is WAY expensive! Also, Mike just accepted an offer for a new job at a company called Knowlysis. He's way excited about it. A few of his friends work there, and he thinks it's a great fit with what he is interested in doing. They also are paying him better and our benefits will start on November 1st (PERFECT timing!!). He starts on Monday and is glad to be getting back to working. He has a better understanding now of being home all day and getting BORED!! Haha :) I think he knows now why I always want to get out and do something when he gets home!

Anyway, we are so grateful that Mike got this position and we know that our prayers have been answered. We feel like everything was meant to be :). Well, while Mike has been home, we've been trying to find things to do. So a couple of days ago we took Madilyn to Thanksgiving Point to their animal farm. She had a lot of fun!! So we have quite a few pictures of the farm and also just of her playing.

Maddie has been learning some new words. She now says "uh-oh guys" and "what". It's pretty cute when you call her name and she looks at you and says "what?", because I know she doesn't know what "what" means, she just knows that we say it when we hear our names. "Ready, Set, Go" is one of her new things too. So she always is stopping, says "ready, set...GO!" and then takes off running. She's racing around all the time!

One of the funniest things she says is (with a lot of drama and her hands over her eyes) "Oh no, oh no, oh no no no no". She usually says that when something bad happens, like she drops her toy or something. She loves to say "hi" to EVERYONE! She's quite the social butterfly. I wish that maybe she had a little bit more stranger anxiety! And luckily she is getting out of her hitting stage! I was wanting her to get over that before the baby comes!!

Anyway, sorry it took so long to update on how we've been doing. But thankfully, all is well :)

She LOVED the pony ride, and looked so cute on it!!


Climbing up the gate to get a better look :)

This is about as close as she wanted to get to that HUGE horse! She was waving and stuff...but she wasn't about to get any closer!

CUTE picture of Maddie and Dad :)

Pictures Contiued...

Madilyn thought these goats were hillarious! They were just cracking her up. They kept trying to lick her hand when she'd put it up to the fence.

Trying to reeeeeach and pet them :)

Playing hide and seek. We surprised her!!

Such a sweet face!!

This picture made me laugh! Mike's dad was helping us with our car, and Madilyn just HAD to be involved. That is exactly how I was when I was little. I always wanted to be a part of fixing stuff with my dad.

It's been a long time...

I'm not very good at keeping up on posts!! Sorry about that!! We've had a lot of fun lately. Mike's parents are visiting from Qatar, and so Maddie has been getting spoiled and having tons of fun with them :). Last weekend we went up to Park City and had a great time. We shopped at the outlets, went to lunch, and then we tried to ride the Gondola at the canyons. Unfortunately we got there too late and it was closing, but we still got to ride one of the lifts. Maddie liked that, and it went pretty fast. It was actually a lot more fun than it looked! Anyway, here are some pictures!!

I just thought this was a cute picture...it was before we left for Park City. She was cracking up!


This is a picture of us at the Canyons. That lift in the background is the one we rode. I recommend it! It's free and fun :)


I think Madilyn looks like such a big girl here. She's growing up too fast! She's with her Grandpa Murray and her uncle Brian.


This is the water bottle I use to do Maddie's hair. She loves to suck on it and get some water out. Funny girl!


I love the back of her hair!! She has got so many curls. She gets a lot of comments on how pretty it looks :). Thank heaven's for her dad's curly hair!! Mine was stick straight! So this is definitely from her dad :)

Camping!

So we went camping with Maddie for the first time this last week up at Bridger Lake. We had a ton of fun!! And we're so glad we were able to go. I got another kidney stone on Thursday, and I was so sad because I didn't think we were going to be able to go camping. Luckily, I got to the hospital and they pumped me full of fluids, and I passed it that day! So I came home, slept off the morphine, and we left the next day.

Madilyn LOVED it! Let's just say, what could make her happier than spending two full days OUTSIDE?! Almost nothing! She went for a ride on the four wheeler, and loved that. Mike and I went out on the fishing boat and both caught fish; it was Mike's first time catching a fish! Very exciting :). The night we spent in the tent was....rough. Madilyn just isn't used to sleeping with us right next to her, and we aren't used to it either! So none of us got very much sleep. But we still had a blast and are so happy we went!









Oh, and here are some recent bathtub pics that I threw in just because they're so cute! The first one is Maddie giving her reflection kisses...haha :)

No pictures...Bummer!!

So, for a few weeks now, I've been looking forward to posting pictures of Madilyn at the 4th of July parade. And now, we don't have any :(. I ended up being admitted into the hospital on Tuesday morning with a kidney stone, and was on Morphine until I passed it on Wednesday. So we didn't get to go to the parade, I was so bummed!! Thankfully Maddie was able to. My parents took her to stay with them overnight, and so she went to the parade with all of her cousins. They said she had a blast and just sat there watching the parade. She was such a good girl! But then, a flying Laffy Taffy hit her in the head and she cried and cried :(. Poor thing! Anyway, I'm sorry I don't have any fun holiday pictures, I wish I did!