Easter

We had a busy Easter week at our house. We had a bbq at our house Monday night for Chanda's birthday. Tuesday my Mom, Becca, and I went to Billings. Wednesday we actually stayed home, so I shampooed the carpet in Hailee's room and that night we colored Easter eggs. It was lots of fun! Hailee especially enjoyed it this year.

Thursday we went over to Burlington and dyed some more Easter eggs with Becca and her kids. It was much more messy the second time! Poor Kole's hand was almost pickled! They really enjoyed themselves though. Mom and I normally clean for Val on Wed. but she switched to Friday, so Friday afternoon we went and cleaned. Saturday we went over to Burlington for the annual Easter egg hunt that Grandma Cook puts on. It was really fun. We had a dinner after that, so we enjoyed some really good food afterward. Then Saturday night we had some family over to play games. We finally got to meet Chris and Shawna's little Miley. She is SO tiny! Her and Kortney are six weeks apart in age. This picture is of them in their matching jammies. Just a little bit of a size difference! I think Shawna said that Miley is up to 5 lbs 10 oz. I think she was 3 lbs 14 oz when she was born!

Easter morning was a little chaotic here. Craig had to work so I was on my own. Hailee was very pleased that the Easter bunny had been by. He brought too many goodies and "the dancing game." She has been begging for it since Christmas. She loves to play at Grandma's house, so we finally gave in and got it. It has been some great entertainment. It is Just Dance for the wii. After church we went and shared a delicious Easter dinner with Craig's family. It was a great day overall!

Isn't it time for spring yet?

I can't believe it has already been a month since I have posted anything... Life at the Winterholler house has been a little crazy. Our days have been filled with running to dr. appointments, dentist appointments, meetings and all kinds of other reasons to keep us on the go. I suppose it is a good thing my kids are "go-ers."

Kortney had her 2 month check-up on the 1st of this month. We are happy to report she is growing and developing quite nicely. Ok, so maybe I am not so happy she is growing so fast! She weighed 10 lbs and was 24 inches long at her appointment. I wish she would stay little a while longer. I love watching her grow and discover new things, but I kind of miss those days of just rocking in the chair and snuggling her all day long! She is a delight though, and such an easy going baby. One of these days she will get the giggle thing down. She wants to do it really bad and sometimes gets little ones out, so I am sure in no time she will get it figured out.

I think we are just hitting the adjustment period with Hailee. She has been kind of a handful lately. I don't know if the newness of it all has just kind of worn off or what. Our first week at church without Craig was "interesting" to say the least. I'll just say I am just grateful a fellow member of the primary presidency was sitting in front of us to help with Kortney while I drug Hailee out of the chapel wailing, "I hate church!" She still loves Kortney and is always telling me how cute she is, so hopefully this stage will pass.

We are definitely ready for spring, and hopefully we get it before summer arrives! We are looking forward to some warmer weather and the chance to get outside. Lauren is moving home next week so we are all very excited about that. Cailee and Chris are coming home for the summer too, so we are excited about that too! Hailee can hardly contain herself. I am going to to try to post a little more often, so I guess we'll see how that goes :)

Blessing Day

We blessed Kortney on the evening of February27th. We had it in the Relief Society room here in Lovell. It worked out really well to do it that way. Cailee and Chris were in town because my nephew Kaiden was baptised earlier that evening over in Powell, so the crew just loaded up and came over to Lovell when that was over. Lauren was also able to be in town, so we were glad to have our families all able to be there. We feel very blessed to have Kortney in our home. She continues to be a very good baby! She is growing up too fast though. We have her 2 month check-up with Dr. J on the 1st of April, so it will be interesting to see how much she has grown. She has been smiling for almost a month now and starting to coo and "talk" to us.

Hailee is still doing really well being the big sister. She is enough help, but not too much. We were able to go down to regional and state basketball. It was so much fun to go and support Leanne. Both of the Lovell teams did very well. They both won the regional tournament. The girls went on to win the state tournament and the boys ended up taking 3rd place. It was sure a nice little vacation for us. Hailee loved the hotel and asks almost daily if we can go back.

The girls and I spent all week last week over in Burlington since Craig was in Ohio all week for some training. It was fun to spend time with my family, it went fast but we are happy to be home too. I guess I am not sure Hailee is as glad as I am, life definitely isn't as exciting here as it is over there. Here are a few pictures from the blessing (compliments of Lauren, I just handed her the camera and she took care of it!). I put Kortney back in her dress the other day and tried to get a few more pictures of her dress.

Blessing

Hi everyone,
Since I am so disorganized, I figured I would just post on here... We are going to bless Kortney this Sunday (the 27th) at 7:30 p.m. in the Relief Society Room here in Lovell. We would love to have anyone who wants to be there come!

why do I wait so long...

I am not sure why I wait so long to post when new stuff happens in our lives. We have definitely had A LOT going on around here this past month! I am not even sure where to start... Tuesday the 25th I had a dr. appointment, she finally checked my and I was 3 1/2 cm dilated, so I was ecstatic. I spent some time over at the hospital that day in observation to see if things would go anywhere after walking around and things like that with the possibility of having Dr. Cruz just start me anyway. Well, long story short the nurse that was assigned to me had a different idea and didn't exactly get me the correct message from the Dr. so I ended up going home. I had contractions pretty good for a while on Wednesday and by Thursday morning they were coming every 5 to 6 minutes so Craig and I headed up to Cody. I was only 4 cm dilated, but after everything Tuesday I was assured they weren't sending me home. I was still contracting regularly all day with very little change. At around 2:30 they started me on pit and still very change so, Dr. Cruz came in a broke my water at around 6. That was all it took, with in 15 minutes my contractions were coming right on top of each other. I felt like a wimp cause I was only 5 cm, but I asked for my epidural anyway. I had my epidural by 8:30 and got a little rest. My nurse came in around 10:15 and wasn't going to check me, but figured she would since it had been 2 hours thinking I was probably around 7 cm... well, to every one's surprise I was complete! I just kind of hung out until Dr. Cruz got there. As soon as they were ready I started pushing and only pushed through 5 contractions before our little angel arrived. Kortney Marie was born at 11:15 p.m. 1/27/11 and was 7 lbs. 3.3 oz and 19.5 inches long. This time was SO much easier than Hailee was!

Hailee meeting Kortney for the first time.

1 week Old

2 Weeks Old

Kortney has been an amazing baby. She sleeps very well and eats every three hours or so. We even got a 5 hour stretch in last night (I was a little upset that I spent the first hour and a half in my recliner because I had fallen asleep burping her). She has a really sweet and calm disposition. I'll admit that most days I just sit in my recliner and cuddle her. Hailee was a screamer and rarely slept so I am taking it all in this time, I can't believe she'll already be 3 weeks old tomorrow! :(

Hailee is a very proud big sister. I was afraid she'd be "too much" help, but she has been really good. She likes to hold her a little bit, but otherwise she is just satisfied knowing that she is finally a big sister.

Last week we got new flooring put down in the kitchen and bathroom, but I will post about that next time when I get some pictures taken...

Is it really 2011?

I can't believe another year has come and gone. Time just never seems to slow down. We had a good year though! We had lots of adventures and learned a lot, hopefully this coming year will be just as much of an adventure. December was a wild month, but we all finished our Christmas shopping in time to enjoy the season. I was so glad to finish with a few weeks to spare! Our first Christmas present was Lauren returning safely from Russia on the 19th!! It was great to have her back, even if it was only for a few weeks. She had a wonderful time! She is such a brave girl and did some great things while she was over there. She had some GREAT experiences doing family history. I am in awe of the things she was able to accomplish; she definately had the help of the spirit! It seems like we just partied the rest of that week.

On the 23rd we went to Worland to celebrate with my father-in-law's sister. It's always a good time when we get to spend time with the Doerr's. It was great to sit and visit with everyone. Worland isn't very far away but it seems like we hardly see them! We spent Christmas Eve with my mother-in-law's family. They are such wonderful people. They have some great traditions and am glad that we got to be a part of it. Hailee was wiped out by the time we left there, she fell asleep on our way home. Craig woke her up so she could open up her Christmas jammies... big mistake, she was up until like 12:30. I dozed on and off until she finally went to sleep then I drug Craig downstairs so we could bring everything up! We finally woke Hailee up at about 8:30 Christmas morning so that we could open gifts and get down to Dave and Suz's for breakfast. Hailee had a ball. She had been talking about "big" presents all week, so I was suprised when she went for the little stuff first. Everything was so exciting though, it was fun to watch her. We got her an easel with a bunch of art supplies, a little vanity, a new pair of boots, and a few other odds and ends. My parents got her a princess cd player for her room and Craigs parents got her a bunch of art supplies. She was quite impressed and maybe a little overwhelmed. Craig and I just kind of got some joint gifts. We got a new camera (ok it was more for me). I was very excited to get something a little nicer though. I had kind of quite taking pictures because I hated my old one so bad. Craig got new tires for the pickup. Not real exciting, but tires are so expensive!! We got each other a few little things, but overall it was great Christmas! We just relaxed all day with Craig's family.

Craig used the rest of his vacation for the year so he didn't have to go back to work between Christmas and New Years. It was kind of nice even though we didn't see a whole lot of him. He got in lots of fishing and snowmobiling though. For New Year's eve Craigs family came over. We just snacked and played a couple games. It was lots of fun. I kind of feel bad that I didn't spend much time with my own family, but my parents left New Year's day for a cruise. They went with Cailee and Chris and Chris's family. They will be back Sunday, it should be interesting to see how it went. I think my dad was a little skeptical about it, but I am sure they are having a great time! I have to admit I am a little jealous!

With the holidays behind us and things getting back to normal our next plan of action is to get ready for this baby to get here. These last few months have gone by SO fast. But I have to admit, I think I am ready to be done being pregnant! Overall it has been a much better pregnancy than I had with Hailee, but I am still ready to be done. I had an ultrasound done yesterday. They are still confident it is a girl, which makes me feel a little better. I just really like to have a plan. They are estimating her weight at 6lbs 4oz... so hopefully we don't go a whole lot longer! There are a few things I have left to get done before she comes, so hopefully I can get them done before she gets here. I relented and allowed a pregnancy picture the other day... I suppose one day I might want to remember what I looked like. I don't know why I am so against them, maybe it's just from being so tired and uncomfortable all of the time... but here it is. And a sneak peak at our little one! 36 weeks

Since I have no ambition to do anything else at the moment, I figured I would update my blog. Life has been so crazy lately. I don't know what I expect with the holidays and whatnot upon us. Craig has finished football season which is a relief! His team did very well, they made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs losing to Thermopolis, the would-be state champs. He loved it, but was ready to be done. He has so many different hobbies that it really cut into his "play" time. I can't say we have seen him a whole lot since, but at least he is available.

I can't believe Thanksgiving has been here and gone. Unfortunately, Craig had to work this year. It was our year to be in Burlington, so Hailee and I went to Burlington to spend the day with my family. Craig went to his mom's when he got off of work to eat, then just watched football. I was going to come back over, but was wiped out by the time evening rolled around. We just stayed in Burlington Thursday night since Craig had to work the day after too. Friday morning Mom and I ran to Cody to hit the sale at Walmart. Becca ended up staying home with the kiddos and just sent a list with us. It was kind of a bummer, Mom had one big item she was after and we figured out after we got there that it didn't go on sale until Saturday... We still got some decent deals and got some Christmas shopping out of the way though. I was feeling really bad about not spending any of the day with Craig, but by Saturday I was glad I hadn't come back over... All of Craig's family ended up with the flu!! Rob had it Thanksgiving Day, Jacob got it Friday, and by Saturday everyone was sick! Craig didn't get it, but I am SO glad that Hailee and I avoided that one!

Hailee turned 3 on Tuesday. I can't believe my baby is already 3! For some reason I was awake that morning about 5, which is when she was born, and I couldn't help but think how much our lives have changed since she came to our family. I don't really even remember life before we had her. It seems like she is just the center of our lives. Hailee had kind of a long day of waiting before we got to party. I had a dr. appointment in Cody that morning, so she and I ventured up there first thing. I was a little worried that she would want everything in sight while we were at Walmart, but she was actually really good. I took her to McDonalds to get a happy meal for lunch though and that was when she fell apart. I was ordering and she was howling in the backseat. Finally when I was done ordering I asked her what she wanted if she didn't want a happy meal... she told me that she wanted birthday cake for lunch! After some discussion she decided that she would eat the happy meal and we would make cake when we got home. We had my family and Craig's family over for dinner and cake. Hailee had an absolute ball! She loved everything she got, especially her cake. Lorraine made her cake again this year and she couldn't have done a better job, it was exactly what Hailee was expecting! She got some great gifts that she is just thrilled about. 2 tea sets, an apron, books, a tutu... We have done a lot of playing since! We are so glad that our families we able to share Hailee's special day.

I can't believe we are into December! I have a feeling this month is going to fly by. I keep telling myself I need to get my sewing machine out so I can start sewing on a few Christmas stockings for Cailee's "new" family. We'll see how that goes ;)