Life Lately...

Let's start with cute pictures first, for a change! :-)

All snuggled up.

3rd... I mean... 1st bath!! We'll call it that anyway. Poor 2nd child... her parents already forgetting to take pictures on 'special' occasions. ;-) She's not a big fan of bathtime yet anyway.

Love her cute little snuggle buns.

Weekend outing... Cosi! FYI, if you're interested in checking out the Dinosaur exhibit... not really worth it. I wouldn't have spent $75 for our family to see it again, that's for sure! Unless you have a Cosi pass, which we ended up buying, and then it's worth the $4/ person.

A picnic! Ava loooved it. She came home and played 'picnic' with her dolls all afternoon. Complete with a baby carrier carseat sitting in the 'grass' on our living room floor. :-)

Now, for the question everyone's been asking... how are we?! This family of four is awesome! And by awesome, I mean I've been living on wee hours of sleep a night, nursing around the clock every 2-3 hours (except last night! Stella slept in 4 & 1/2 hr intervals! YES!!), my personal hygiene has admittedly fallen by the wayside, my house is a disaster zone (except the dishes... thanks to Daddy), and my laundry is out-of-freakin'-control!!

Eric has been on a wacky work schedule for the last week or so, going in at 11am and not getting home until 9:30pm some nights. Umm... that... is... a... painful... day!! He's running a job where they work on a roof all day long in the heat. So, we're talking temperatures of 140-160 degrees up there. Poor guy sweats buckets all day. Then he gets home and I just want to dump the children on him and run! Ha!! On those late nights when he gets home the kids are in bed, or getting there, and I'm deciding whether to shower or collapse in my bed. So, he's physically exhausted and I'm emotionally exhausted by the end of the day. When he's home, he tends to take care of Ava while I take care of Stella. What's that called? Man to man defense? Yea, that's how it works!

Ava started out throwing larger than life 2 year old tantrums (which fade a little more everyday), she asks to be 'the baby' and have her diaper changed, sit in the bouncy seat, and sleep in mommy & daddy's room... and occasionally picks up a binky and puts it in her mouth, however, not sucking on it because she never liked binky's, but just to have it there... in her mouth... like a baby. She also started busting out heartbreaking statements like, "mommy, why you always with baby Stella? Can't she drink juice from da frigerator?" and "can you put her down so I can hug you?" which have also faded over the last week. Don't know how many more of those statements I could take! Bless her heart... her life as she knew it is over! :) She loves on her baby sister in the sweetest ways possible, though. She greets her in the morning with a, "good mooorning sweetheart! she's so cute mom... can I see her face closer?!" and she climbs up on the side of her crib while I change her diaper and get her dressed. She always calls her 'sweetheart'... or 'lil fella'...haha. If Stella is crying and I'm not right there I'll hear Ava say, "it's okay sweetheart, mommy's comin', mommy's comin." She gets a serious confidence boost when Stella's crying and she gives her a binky and it soothes her. She'll say, "Mom! Look! She's happy now! I did dat! I gave her her binky!" Witnessing all of these things makes the craziness of mothering a newborn and 2 & 1/2 year old well worth every minute!

So, we're all adjusting... slowly, but surely. I remind myself everyday that she is only a few weeks old (3 to be exact) and expecting a predictable routine to fall into place with her so quickly is unrealistic. That's always the hardest thing for me... I like predictability and schedules. Newborns don't do schedules. As I tell my 2 year old everyday... we have to have patience. :) Actually, she is starting to fall into a little more of a routine... which might be why she slept so well last night. Let's hope it keeps up!

Stay tuned for another day when I've had a good night's rest for another update!

P.S. I need to take more pictures of my baby! I had taken 120 or so pics of Ava by this point!

More hospital pics

Yea! Lets do this! (post epidural ;)

My sister was working and got to come down to labor and delivery to witness the main event!

Sweet Daddy ;) Always such a good labor supporter.

The A-team! Dr. Turner and my nurse Katie.

See, the pink gown makes for some cute postpartum pics ;) Distracts you from my puffy eyes and face! lol.

She was soooo proud to hold her baby sister!

precious!

Lit'l peanut...

Another sweet baby girl... so blessed ...

Hospital Pics

These pictures were taken by a photographer at the hospital as our official newborn pics. She did great. So much better than the typical mugshot looking pics we're all used to!

Presenting... Stella Jolie Williams

Our Sweet Baby Girl is Here!!

Stella Jolie

July 5, 2011

11:20 am

6 lbs 15 oz

20 inches

The "story" : (the short version )

It was about 8:45pm, on July 4th, at the Worthington fireworks festival when it all began. :) Isn't that a nice start :) Eric, Ava, & I were out and about with our friends, the Seeds, walking around downtown Worthington with our children, enjoying some Independence day festivities. I had been contracting on and off all day (like usual) when, after a visit at Graeter's and a very large turtle sundae, we started walking back down the hill to our cars, when I felt a large GUSH of fluid fill my britches. I squealed, "Oooh crap, guys! I think my water just broke! Oh man, or maybe I peed myself?!? But it won't stop! And it's very warm!! Ahh!" I froze in the middle of the sidewalk, one hand holding myself and the other grabbing Jess' arm while also crossing my legs, (water still flowing!) and trying desperately to cover what felt like an ocean of wetness down my legs. I must've had THE MOST terrified look on my face, because my sweet friend Jess assured me that it does indeed feel like you've peed yourself! Ok, then! Well, now what!? (The labor & delivery nurse in me left the building at. that. moment! I felt clueless despite seeing this stuff almost everyday:) We continued walking to our cars, but only after the lady in front of us, who happened to hear the excitement behind her, yelled "Well, Congratulations!!" Ha! We hurriedly made our way to our vans... drip, drip, drip... and I pretty much shuffled the entire way there! I was convinced I peed myself. I thought, "ok, if my water did break, these contractions will pick up and then I'll know for sure!" Our friends offered to keep Ava for the night and watch the fireworks while Eric and I went home for our bags... or to at least figure out what in the world was going on here! More leaking on the way home... "this has to be my water, right?!" I'm telling you, labor is not a straight forward science. Especially when you're the one going through it! Like textbook though, my contractions got considerably more intense and closer together within the hour. By the time we got to the hospital, they were baaaddd. I was 2-3 cm when I got to the hospital, they tested to see if my water broke, and the tests came back negative! What the!? Now, listen... I am self-admittedly a rockstar pants-pee-er. Especially during pregnancy, I have the weakest bladder. I know when it's happening, obviously, and how to make it stop... know what I'm sayin'? You can stop the flow of urine! Not amniotic fluid! Right? Confusing. Regardless of the skeptical tests, my contractions were coming much more frequently and stronger! So something was brewing! :) So, I was admitted to the same room we had Ava in... Eric's request. Thankfully, there were rooms available! Labor & Delivery had been so busy lately I was afraid I'd come in in labor and have to deliver on a cart. Ha! So, after a few hours and only very little cervical change, I got pitocin and promptly an epidural. I wanted to have more cervical change before getting the epidural, but when the word pitocin is mentioned, I know better, hook me up with the epidural! Forget waiting for more change! This is exhausting! The rest is history :) Labor went well, except for a one sided epidural that left me high & dry. My cervix changed from 5.5cm to 10cm in an hour, so I can't blame the epidural... but ouch! After waiting painfully for 35-40 minutes for my doctor to get there I had miss Stella out in ONE contraction! 4 pushes and she was here! Unbelievable! I couldn't have asked for a better delivery. She came right up on my belly, crying & pink, my beautiful sweet baby girl. And my care team was amazing... absolutely the best experience ever. Unlike my ornery Ava, who needed a vacuum to pull her chubby butt out, which brought 8 million people into the room at the time of delivery, Stella came into this world peacefully. Although she screamed & screamed & screamed foreeevvver after she was born. My little firecracker. Stella was exactly one pound smaller and one inch shorter than Ava. Ava was born at 41 weeks, and Stella at 39 weeks + 4 days, so I'd say they are pretty comparable. Eric chose Stella's middle name. Jolie is the french word for 'pretty'. I had given him the duty of picking a middle name and it came down to the day before she was born before he decided on one, but he did it and it's beautiful... just like our new baby girl! And that's a wrap... ;)

Month Recap...

Got a couple pictures to post from May...since I didn't make one single post all month!

A quick run down: I've been using my spare time lately to de-clutter my house. Closets, basement, crawl space, garage, dresser drawers--everything's getting cleaned out!! Ava's room recently underwent a minor makeover, as well. Just moved some things over to the nursery and gave her a new *B-I-G* G-I-R-L bed!! She loves her new bed! And the napping hasn't stopped!! It's been a beautiful transition. :) She continues to surprise us at how easy going she is about everything. Sleeping through the night = 3 days old (ok, at least 6 hrs straight)... Potty training = 4 days (I expected months and months of agony)... Sleeping in her big girl bed without a struggle & napping = the first day we tried it out!! Unbelievable! We find that she does spend a lot of time up there talking to her "friends" and reading books before she falls asleep. It's pretty cute to listen to. Thankfully, she hasn't fallen out of her bed yet, either. But rest assured, I lined the perimeter of her bed with several pillows and blankets for weeks when she first moved into the big bed... just in case. : ) We always expect the worst, I think. I had nightmares of how this transition might go... up all night crying, banging on her door for someone to let her out, in our room every 2 hours, or the WORST scenario: no more naps!! My visions were not pretty. My anxiety was way worse than hers! She's such a peach. And now my 2nd will probably live up to my worst nightmares! Haha! See, the anxiety's kicking in already. ; )

Speaking of my 2nd, the big day is rapidly approaching! I'm so excited to meet her. So many emotions surround childbirth. I'm ecstatic to have another baby and constantly have dreams about her little pink cheeks, downy soft hair, and sweet baby scent. Snuggling, nursing, listening to baby squeaks, those little white bumps on baby noses. There is nothing in this world we live in that is more rewarding than nurturing & mothering a newborn baby. And then there are the days when I think, "oooh boy, here we go again!" Diaper changes, fussing & crying, non-stop nursing, wack-a-doo body, spit-up, up-the-back-and-out-the-sides-diaper blow-outs, ridiculous fatigue. For some reason, these things happen to come to mind at times when my toddler is showing her devil horns... conveniently. ;) But like I told my husband the other day, their babyhood is gone in the blink of an eye. It really amazes me...and saddens me...that my daughter is almost 3 years old. Her babyhood is gone. Those chubby thighs (she kinda still has them ;), silly raz-berries, backwards crawling, jumping like crazy in her bouncer are all over for her. Too fast! But in moments of chaos, it seems like they'll be babies forever and we'll never catch a break. Then you blink and 3 years have gone by! I can only imagine how it will feel when I've blinked and 26 years have gone by! It's all just ages and stages. Cherish them!


Some pictures from the past month...

The first really nice day of summer! It was 74 degrees and Ava decided to play in the leftover rain water in her water table. I later decided to fill it with lukewarm tap water... after she decided that she couldn't play in the water with a wet shirt on. :) 

Teeny tiny baby crack : )

Yep, she dunked her head...

My girl on mother's day. Love her to the moon....and back!!

Posing with her baby : )

Here she's saying, "daddy baby got hurt, kiss it" That face says it all actually. : )

The first day in her pool! We will be here a lot this summer! She loves it. It's the perfect size and depth for a 2 year old + mommy's feet. ; )

Thought she was blowing bubbles...then it turned into body painting with bubbles. Gotta mix it up! :)

"Hiiii Mom!!!"

35 weeks, my friends ; ) I've loved every minute!

A Lil Bit of Easter...

I don't have too many pictures to post from Easter...I've been slacking on my picture taking lately. We had a great weekend! Ava and I went with my sister and neice to see the movie Rio in 3D last Friday. Ava amazingly did much better than I thought she would! She liked the 3D glasses and looooved the popcorn. Just towards the end of the movie did she get a little ornery. :) We spent the night at my mom's and got up in the morning for Gribbles' donuts. I crave them like crazy when I'm pregnant, so I caved and had a maple creamstick, apple fritter, AND a glazed donut...in one sitting. With a big glass of whole milk! SO yummy :) We had Easter dinner at my moms on Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day...summer get here soon!!

We went to the Easter service at Vista Community Church sunday morning. We attended the early service...which was kind of hard to drag ourselves out of bed at 7am on a weekend, but the next service wasn't until 11. We've visited this church here and there over the last year or so, and really, every time we go I love it more. It's such a laid back, come as you are church. The pastor cracks me up. He's young, with a young family and relates his sermons to REAL life. I always leave Vista's services feeling refreshed, with a quality message I can put to use in my life for the week--and beyond. The church is filled with young couples with young children, which is what I'm looking for. Without local family around, its important to me to be part of a church community for support. Whats that saying about "it takes a village to raise a child" ? Yea, I'm looking for a village of young, christian, faith-filled, fun-loving spirits who get a kick out of supporting their community and serving God, who love life and all it has to offer...I need a village like that to surround my family. I might've found just the place at Vista. Of all the churches we've "tried out" over the past year, this place feels the "homiest"...that's not even a word? :) And I'm so excited for Vista to come closer to home for us this fall!

We woke Ava up Easter morning and told her the Easter bunny came to visit us while she was sleeping and he left presents!!!! The girl hears the word "presents" and goes ballistic! She's at a great age...

The sleep still in her eyes <3

Easter books, Tinker Bell movie, easter silly bands, gardening tools, sippy cup, webkinz bunny, chocolate, and her most favorite of all--JELLYBEANS! :)

Showing me her shovel.

These were my Easter sweets!

Hope you had a fantastic Easter!

30 Weeks

I've reached the 30 week point this week. All is going great! We had our 3D/4D ultrasound today...which totally rocked our world. :) I love all the excitement that comes with pregnancy. First its the pregnancy test, then the first ultrasound, and then the gender determination, and next is the 3D/4D, and then labor comes and soon you're home with a new baby!! For me, pregnancy is a time when I get lots accomplished. Closets uncluttered, bedrooms purged, cobwebs removed from corners of the house I forgot existed. We have projects GALORE going on over here. Our list is about 2 pages long. Finish painting exterior of the house, fence in backyard, reseal the deck, replace deck furniture, replace front door, install storm door, paint kitchen, replace countertops, add backsplash, ...heck, decorate the nursery! And that's just the tip of the iceberg ;) I think I'm going nuts trying to get this all accomplished before the baby comes because I know I'll be doing nothing but nursing a newborn and trying to entertain a 2 & 1/2 year old everyday of my life this summer. Bring it on. :)


Picked up Stella's nursery bedding last week. Bedding #1 won our hearts and many of yours it looks like. :) I love, love, love that light blue color and pink together for baby girls. Many of the first clothes I picked out for Ava were that color, and I find myself drawn to the same color for Stella. Probably because blue is my favorite color. And Ava's too. She will pick out anything she sees that's blue and say, "oooh I yike bwue!" Never fails. :) It's a nice break from pinks and purples...although I love girly colors too, don't worry. ;)


Picture time!

This technology is incredible. I love that you can see her knuckles and even the bones in her arm, but it also shows off her chubbiness :)

She's got all my favorite baby parts. Button nose, kissy lips, chubby cheeks!!

This person is in my belly right now! 2nd pregnancy and 30 weeks into it and I still can hardly fathom how incredible it is to grow a baby. God gave women an amazing 'talent'.

I love her little hands up by her mouth. Wonder if she'll be a thumb sucker?

Love me some baby footsies!

...and it's officially undeniably official...baby Stella is a girl. :)

Click here to see Ava's 3D/4D pics!

Which One?

Help us out friends! We can't decide...

Use the poll over there on the right side-bar to place your vote!

Her room will likely have a light blue accent wall...the other colors are yet to be decided on. ;)

Bedding Set #1

Bedding Set #2



This is likely the only new item we're buying for her. She can't have everything hand-me-down! :)

Lately...

I've been pretty lousy at keeping up with our blog lately...please forgive me. :)

I think if I don't start posting more pictures and updates, there are a few family members that are going to disown me...so here I go! =)

Gosh, when I'm not actually sitting down to blog I have a million and one thoughts and ideas that come to mind. And now that I'm here...nothing! Hate when that happens...

So, starting with Miss Ava...

She's been a full blown 2 & 1/2 year old lately. Her personality is sprouting more everyday. She can be bossy and independent one minute, loving and docile the next. She loves to play "monsters" with daddy and she's always on the lookout for "Swiper da neeky fots!!" (Swiper the sneaky fox). Hilarious and annoying at the same time! I can't tell you how over Dora the Explorer I am! Thankfully, I think she's fading a little for Ava as well. She enjoys Tinkerbelle, Minnie & Mickey Mouse, Backyardigans, Finding Nemo and basically anything else that involves ocean animals. She loves playing with play-doh and coloring with markers (mostly on paper...but sometimes on herself too). She always wants to make caves with the play doh and fish that can swim in the caves. She likes me to color with her and draw stick figures of our family. She even asks for me to draw "daddy's van & daddy's fo-wheelder". And she loves drawing rainbows. It's pretty cute to see her preferring certain things over others and having her own independent thoughts. Amazing little person she is!

She looooves books. We read a few books everynight before bed and lately she's been asking to read books before naps as well. The nap book requests are likely her sneaky way of delaying the nap...but oh well. :) She still takes about a 2 hour nap everyday. I'm not sure how much longer the naps will last...especially after we transition to her big girl bed. Either way, it will be take a nap or have 1 hour of quiet time everyday. Speaking of big girl bed... I think we'll take the plunge next week. She's getting our spare bed which is a full size bed. Totally skipping the toddler bed...mostly because we need the crib for the next baby. I think she'll like it. We keep talking about this "big girl" bed she's about to get and how special it will be. :) We'll see how it goes... no matter what, it's all just a phase, right? ;) I will tell you one thing...the girl cannot fall asleep in our bed. She woke up last week around 2am, crying and asking to be rocked, so I thought she'd just fall asleep in our bed since it was the middle of the night. I brought her to our bed, she snuggled up beside me with her blankie, and 20 minutes later when I thought she must be asleep she looked up at me and said, "mommy, i wanna watch tv". LOL. She was STILL awake!

She definitely eats like a toddler nowadays!! Wow. I can't imagine what some people go through, because although she's getting picky about things, she still eats a monstrous breakfast and lunch. Dinner is always a struggle. She's boycotting anything that has the slightest hint of spicyness. No tacos or other mexican for this girl. Sometimes the food can't even be too warm or she says its too hot and won't eat it. She has issues with textures too. No cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, carrots, avocado (which she used to love) and there are plenty of other things she wont eat. Regardless, I make what I make for dinner and if she doesn't eat it, or even take a bite of it, then she just doesn't eat dinner. She'll usually ask for a snack later, before bed, and she can have an orange or some other fruit...or we'll try her leftover dinner. The good news is, she's growing and healthy...so I guess she's not starving... ;). I feel especially reassured since she gets her Juice Plus everyday. 17 servings of fruits and veggies right there. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am with that product...but thats an entire post in itself! So if you want to go there and hear my exciting story on why I live & love Juice Plus, then please email me. eric-liz@hotmail.com. I love the stuff. It's enhancing our lives for sure! :)

Onto baby #2...

I'm growing and glowing. A little more everyday! This has been a wonderful pregnancy. I'm thankful everyday for every kick to my bladder or ribs and all the shooting pains in my back. Honestly. I wasn't this aware of how precious a healthy pregnancy is during my pregnancy with Ava. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved it and knew it was purely miraculous that a human being can live and grow inside your body for 9 months and then come into this world kicking and screaming. But I realize now, mostly because I take care of sick moms all the time, how much of a gift it is to have a healthy pregnancy. I love growing this sweet baby girl!

We are slowly...and I mean slooowwlly...getting a nursery together for Stella. Time goes by so fast with a little one at home already. And honestly, we've learned a thing or two from having our first. Basically, you don't need much to take care of a baby. A boob (well, two) and diapers will satisfy their needs for quite awhile after they come home!! :) But really, we do plan on getting her room all dolled up and cute...we just need to make some decisions on some simple things like paint color and then just DO IT. We are using a lot of stuff from Ava. The good thing about having another girl :) It's pretty cheap to prepare for another one! We can't wait to meet her. It's crazy to think we'll have another little one running around who owns as much of our hearts as Ava. Cannot wait! I don't think Ava totally understands the idea of having a baby sister soon. She knows where baby Stella is and will point to my belly when we ask about her, but the other day when we asked if her belly was full after she ate she replied, "yea, my baby stella full too!" Haha!! Soo...I don't think she gets it. I don't know what she's thinking sometimes...lol.


Okay...some pictures...

 Nothing like starting with a blurry pic! She's been wanting to wear a cape like a "super hero" lately. So we tie her little blankie around her neck and she zooms around the house like superman. Can you say tom boy?! The babysitters little boy is crazy about super heroes too...that's where she gets it! :)

Trying to catch her in action!

Nutty girl...

My sister in law and I at her baby shower. She's having a boy! Baby Drew meets Baby Stella ;) Lori's due the end of May and I'm due the 1st week of July.

My 26 week belly shot.

Not sure if this girls hair will ever grow!

She's loving the new Dora bow I made for her. ;)

Popcorn and a movie...our kind of night!

The jealousy begins...even though she doesn't normally love having her picture taken, when daddy starts snapping shots of mommy and baby Stella she has to get in there! :)