My sweet baby is a week old today! I can't belive how much life has changed already! First of all our house is the cleanest it's ever been thanks to Gary helping me every day and both of us keeping things picked up.Baby Grace eats about every 2-3 hours. She seems to eat every 2 hours most of the night b/c she falls alseep halfway through eating and I have a HARD time waking her back up. She also poops while she's eating more than half of her feedings a day so just when I think she's done she' suddenly acting like she's starving. She falls alseep either on her own or with a paci. She usually spits the paci out and keeps on sleeping but to ward off the "i lost it and cant get it back" cry which is very similar to the "i'm starving mom feed me now" cry --Gary likes to swadle her in a way that kind of holds the paci in. I was nervous about this manuver with Tyler but it worked, then when Grace was born one of the nurses did it and she could not move her head at all and that paci was in her mouth in such a way that I don't know if she could have spit it out if she wanted to! I figured after that that Gary's less constricting method was just fine. Plus- who likes getting out of bed every 5 minutes? Grace also loves to be held and also likes to lay onthe floor or in her boppy and just stare around. So far her eyes are still deep blue. She's just gorgeous. She sleeps well (just not long enough but in a couple months i'm sure that will improve), eats well, and is sweet as can be. I'm trying to enjoy these weeks where she seems to do nothing but sleep but I will admit sometimes the nursing gets to me. It's just SO time consuming! I'm very nervous about how I'll do when Gary goes back to work. Hopefully the act of sitting and standing won't hurt so much by Tuesday and I can be moving around while nursing to get Tyler things when he needs them. Tyler has adjusted very well all things considered. It's going to be quite a shock Tuesday when Daddy's not here anymore though. I"m a bit nervous about that too. Thankfully we have anice safe yard, plenty of TV channels, and he has plenty of toys on all 3 levels of the house. I'm hoping he'll enjoy having some of his own quiet time back. he's always liked to kind of play by himself somedurring the day so maybe not having Dad around stimulating him all day will turn out not to be a bad thing. :) I made Gary go golfing yesterday. He says "made" i say "encouraged". He said he wanted to go and i told him to just go. he didn't want me to be mad but i told him that if it helped him get out and do something rather than being cooped up in the house and improved his mood a bit then I'd rather him go than stay. It did in fact improve his mood! We have been out of the house every day since we got home from the hospital. Monday-Wednesday we had to go to the hospital every day to have Grace's bilirubin done. Finally Wednesday's numbers came down slightly, but came down and so we stopped. Yesterday we went to Walmart (which was a disaster- I was too hormonal apparently to handle a trip to the grocery store where we spend money...) today we took Grace to the Doctor. She's back up to her birthweight of 7 pounds exactly! She's my peanut!! She has these teeny tiny skinny little arms and legs. It's amazing to me how differently than Tyler she is built. Tyler came out a huge mass of muscle and she's dainty and thin. She's also a good pound lighter than he ever was and on a newborn- that one pound makes a difference! We already kind of feel like she's always been here. Tyler loves her and likes to sing her the Gilmore Girls song and the ABC song. he kisses her a lot, tells her goodnight and that he loves her. When she fusses he usually comes to get one of us to make sure she's ok. He's doing well keeping away from her when he's hyper but he's not exactly mastered this skill yet. Nor do I imagine he ever will! :) Overall this week has been exausting and trying but wonderful. So far she's pretty much a textbook baby and I'm very thankful. I'm also thankful that the nursing is going well- I'm much less anxious about everything than I was with Tyler. I'm still strict about how I want to do things and have my mind set on most of those things, but overall I'm way less stressed overall. I imagine that will change about 6:30 AM on Tuesday. The only thing that is hard so far (other than my own healing) is not being able to be online. So many people have commented or written me messages here and in my regular email and I hate that I have not written hardly any of them back. It's been a HUGE encouragement though to recieve all your well wishes and congrats and prayers. Ithelps so much to know that even though I'm crazy busy all of a sudden, that I have friends who love me. Hang with me dear friends! i'll be back in touch with you as soon as I can- I promise! You are all too important to ignore and I love you all! i hope you'll read this as if it's apersonal email from me to you- I wish i could email everyone personally but I just can't. I know you understand but wanted to say it anyways. We will keep trying to update photos on our photobucket and blogspot so check back when you can. I love you all and we are doing well. We appreciate and continue to need your prayers, love and suppport!!

Well we got Tyler to hold 'Baby Sister' today. It was just the most precious thing!

Baby Bush was born at 3:36 on friday may 18th. Armandina Grace (we are calling her Grace) was 7 lbs and 20 inches. She was name after one of mine and heather's great grandma's. Two pictures are below. More will follow once we get home tomorrow. UPDATE new pictures added! Baby Grace

Delivery Day Part1 We are in the midst of delivery of 'Baby Sister". Mom is doing well, progressing well. She has her Epideral so all is good. I will update when more news is available. Love you all!

It's Mother's Day! Just a few photos of the fun we had!


Tyler playing on the drums in church today!
Tyler, Grandma Sandra, Mommy, Great-Grandma Cline
Great Grandpap Kandray, Great-Grandma Kandray, Grandma Stephanie, Tyler and Mommy
Heather and Grandma Cline
Heather and "baby sister" 38 weeks and 1 day! 5 days until induction!!

First of all I just have to say a big CONGRATS to my college roomie and BFF LORI I REDA for getting her MASTERS DEGREE yesterday!!! I wish I could have been there but of course the stupid hospital only offers one tour a month and it had to be yesterday. I'm so glad I went and I do feel much more at ease about everything but I wish I'd have called like the minute I found out which hospital I was supposed to go to. Stupid me missed out on one of the greatest nights of my best friends life. :( Anyways, Congrats LORI!!! I hope you know in my heart I was there and that I love you SO SO MUCH!!!!!! Go see her page to see her all decked out in her gown!! Isn't she beautiful!!!???
Now onto my day... today was what I thought might be my last Dr. appt... but I have to go back next week. Let me just say that I really feel like at this point these things are a complete waste of time for both me and the staff at the office. She was literally in the room for like 3 minutes. She felt my belly- yup, its baby's butt pushing on me just above my belly button and her head is down just like it's supposed to be and clearly this means she's facedown- ready to go! My blood pressure is great, and hear heartbeat is great. Do I feel ok? Well, considering I"m 38 weeks pregnant, yea, I guess I feel ok. I love how they check the heartbeat. I just love hearing it but a part of me thinks that clearly her heart is beating because she's moving about 12 hours a day... it's nice to know it's beating correctly though! It made me realize-again- how blessed I am to have such 'easy' pregnancies. Of course they don't seem easy to me, but compared to many women I know- they are. Not to mention the fact that I am blessed to be able to get pregnant at all. God is so GOOD!! So, I go back next thursday morning for one more appt before my assumed induction on Friday.
Knowing that next week is my rest up and get ready week I decided today to go ahead and go to Walmart with Tyler to walk around, kill some time, and look for a couple little Mother's Day gifts for the grandma's. He was really good at the office so I figured we'd see how our luck held. He sat in the cart fine, we walked around some, got a few sample/trial sized items for me to take to the hospital and then of course i had to use the ladies room so he came with me. He WILL NOT put his feet straight to get out of the stupid seat so his shoe comes off every stinking time....but he was well behaved in the potty and so we continued to shop. He was quick to remmeber when getting back into the cart that other people (read: dad and grandma and pops) let him sit in the big cart part so I decided to let him figuring if he misbehaved we were leaving anyways!
I managed to find the clearance scrapbooking area so I got a few things and then looked at purses. Purses are always a safe bet for my mom- I figured I'd just buy the cheapest one that I found that I liked but I didn't like ANY! I called her and she had no ideas so I headed to another safe bet- nail polish. Mom- if you are reading this just act surprised on Sunday. This story is too great to wait till Monday to share! So I got a nail polish and a few other small items and put them down in the cart. Tyler had been playing with his car and the one empty container I bought to take body wash to the hospital in. Suddenly I hear this scream and look down and my child's hands and face are covered with something red! I freaked grabbed his hand and as I did smelled the smell. This red substance was not blood... no... it was in fact pink... smelly...nail polish. He had opened it and got it all over his shirt and then on his face and fingers and when he tried to wipe his eyes!!! I had a hard time calming him down and getting him to STOP rubbing his eyes. The associate near us offered to go get me a tissue. I looked up and said, "It's nail polish. I don't think a tissue will help." Her eyes got all big and I resumed checking his eye ball and trying to calm him down. I wiped his hands and face really well with a baby wipe to get off any excess and he calmed down fine. Now I get to call the pediatrician and see how to get it off of him! I DID take a picture!!

So that's my day so far! And now it's only 11!! Maybe today would be a good Happy Meal day...

And the winner is... induction.I called the doctor yesterday! My doc. is actually on vacation so it's not "official" until she gets back Monday and approves it and they call me with details, but I did decide and I did call. As I understand it I'll be induced the 18th unless I go into labor on my own before that. I even called yesterday and registered at the hospital. I also did several loads of laundry and organized drawers and tables and bookshelves started cleaning out the fridge, changed the sheets on the beds, organized my dresser, and finished my scrapbook of up to when Tyler was born. I have a few more pictures I'll do one final odds and ends page with and then i can start Tyler's life. :) Gary got the nesting bug last night too. He mowed and weed wacked the yard, we got the rest of the baby stuff from the basement and set it up and cleaned it, and he fixed and moved my rocking chair into the bedroom. Of course now, after my day of nesting, there is still a lot to be done like the actual deep cleaning and i'm sore and tired! But, the decision is made and now you all know. :)

my Gary is the best. Prepare yourself for mushy stuff here! I just have to share why I'm so blessed to have Gary. First off I'll tell you he's far from perfect. In fact he can be a royal pain in the a$$ quite often and there are things about him I'd change in a heartbeat. How many times have I picked up dirty clothes piles right NEXT to the hamper that he'd just shed? How many farts have I smelled? How many times is the rug and floor in the bathroom soaked b/c he does not wipe his ski sized feet when getting out of the shower? How many farts have I smelled? How many times has the towel been in a sopping ball on the floor? How many farts have I smelled? How many times have I washed the sink when company is coming over only to have him right away come shave and leave hair all over that same sink? HOW MANY FARTS HAVE I SMELLED???? Ahh... but Tuesday... I pulled myself away from focusing on the negative in time to see some remarkable things about my Gary. He always gives me some covers when he gets out of bed in the morning and 'tries' to be quiet while he gets dressed. He keeps both cars full on gas and takes care of oil changes and setting up repairs. He mows the lawn, not as often as I'd like, but he does it. He takes care of going to the bank when the need arises and other errands like that. He always goes to the grocery store with me to help just as much as keep me from overspending. He also does it to spend time with me. The past two day's we've been trying another new "being good stewards of our money" thing. We decided that if we got a land line and dsl Internet and a prepaid track phone and buy phone cards we could cancel the cable Internet, cancel the cell phone and still have both phone and Internet and save a good chunk of money. We could significantly increase the savings if we got rid of the dish and got cheap cable... which we still might do. Anyways, the phone company sent the stuff in the mail we needed, it came Monday and they were to come between 4 and 8 pm to hook up the phone line. At 7:45 Gary called and they have "no way of knowing if someone is headed to our house or not". Grr #1. Then, of course they did not show up and we find out it's Central time and so by 9 our time we should have a dial tone. At 6:30 Tuesday morning when Gary left for work, still no dial tone Grr #2. Now backtracking I will say that Gary went to the basement, found our phones and answering machine, hooked them all up, and took care even of drilling a hole in the floor so a line could be run through the basement to the computer. So Tuesday, they were supposed to send someone out to take care of setting up the DSL and be there sometime between 8 AM and 5 PM. They can't narrow it down by more than that? SO I ran down to the basement REALLY fast to throw laundry in and out of washer/dryer a couple times, put Tyler down for his nap and got him up REALLY fast and sat by the back door so I could see the front door while we played outside. Kept the door open all day, no music on, TV only when I was where I could see the driveway- all this to watch for the guy and make sure he didn't knock once and leave or something. So Gary came home, ran in and kissed us and ran out again to take the rent check to the management company b/c he got paid Friday and the bank could not get the money to them in time so we had to take it personally. Not we, he. :) And he did. So by the time he got home it was after 5 and they STILL had not come!! So, being the wonderful husband he is- he called them and was on the phone I swear for an hour with all sorts of people. Turns out there is something wrong with some line somewhere or something so I have to sit by the front door again TODAY and wait for someone to come “Sometime between 8 and 5” to look at the lines. Of course if it's a problem with the wiring inside the unit, they charge to fix it and according to our landlords, the company that owns the properties will not pay for it. SO we are going to can the whole thing if that happens. We are not spending a couple hundred dollars up front in order to save 50 a month!!! Just doesn't seem worth it. Anyways, while he was on the phone it made me think a lot about how I never have to worry about this stuff. I mean it can be annoying to be waiting around for people who never show up or call but at least I don't have to deal with making the arrangements. SO, all that to say it's been an annoying few days, but I'm so thankful to have my Gary! He's the best!! Next time he takes my last caffeine free diet Pepsi though someone is getting smacked... In Other news we got invited to MCS's prom!! I'm so excited!!! I have nothing to wear but it'll be fine. :) It will be a crazy weekend but I'm tha;nkful that Gary won't have to go to the house and mow the lawn in the evening without us, we can do it while we are there this weekend. This is the LAST big thing (other than Mother's Day) that I'm doing before this baby comes though! Can you believe I'm due THIS MONTH!?!?