Introducing......

Olivia Noel!
Born Dec. 27. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 8 oz. And is 21 inches long.

You can continue reading if you would like the rest of the story. :)
So I spent all month NOT being dilated (which is rare for me-since I was at least a one with my other girls). I had an appointment on the 23rd and I was finally dilated and to a 4! So I thought for sure I would be having a babe that night!

Little history lesson- my labors with my other girls were extremely fast and Emma was 10 days early and Camilla was 19 days early (so early that Kevin missed it:) So based on my past history, I thought for sure I would be getting a baby before Christmas. I kept feeling really bad for this babe's birthday if she didn't get here before Christmas.

So my OB says, "if you were 39 weeks we would take you over to the hospital and break your water right now. We can lie if you want." Oh I was so tempted! I was sooooooooo sick of being pregnant. (I know I wasn't even to my due date yet, but in my mind I was overdue since my other girls were so early). So the OB says that we should probably be honest just in case her lungs aren't developed. And if I don't go into labor over the weekend, come in on Monday and we'll be induced.
We sat around all weekend with really inconsistent contractions. And hoping I wouldn't go into labor Christmas Eve (seriously who wants to babysit then?) We made it to Monday. We calmly dropped our kiddos off at a friends house and drove to the hospital. I got checked in, I got my IV's in (stabbed 5 times-thanks nurses), and waited for pitocin (sp?) to start labor. BTW, this is also the longest we have sat in a delivery room-it has always been crazy!
Things started to pick up a bit. I got my blessed epidural (it didn't have time to work with Cami). And then the OB came in and broke my water.
I didn't feel any pain and an hour later, I had dilated from a 4 to a 10 and delivered my biggest baby yet! (And I barely tore!)
She is the cutest baby ever! I can't get enough of her. And she has a lot of cute dark hair. (Also different from my other girls-who were totally bald). So this babe makes her entrance very different from her sisters, but we can't get enough of her cuteness.

And her name you ask? Any family name, church history significance or a prophets' wife? (our other girls have all three) Nope, we just really liked Olivia. Nothing else seemed to fit for her. We have friends with the cutest niece named Olivia (that we hung out with in high school-she was 2 at the time and we all loved her!)-so we have always been partial to the name. And Noel? After much debate on the spelling, we settled on the traditional spelling. Yes, she has a December birthday and a mom who LOVES Christmas so she gets to celebrate all the time! I also had a really awesome mission companion whose last name was Noel.
And there you have it...if you are still reading!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! So I opted to not do Christmas cards this year. My main reason....I am having a baby! But still no baby yet for those of you who are on baby watch. I had Camilla by this point in my pregnancy so I thought for sure I would have this little bundle of joy by now. (Especially with complications early on, I thought she would by dying to get out). So anyway, we continue to wait and I continue to grow larger than I ever was with the other two. Sorry, enough complaining about being pregnant. But stay tuned for our new babe soon (we hope!)
Things have gone well for us this year. We are still in the Bay Area. Kevin is liking his job with Pricewaterhouse Coopers. And I am loving staying home with the girls.
Emma is now 4 1/2 and Camilla is 2 1/2. They have lots of fun playing together and say the funniest things.
Merry Christmas to all our family and friends! We love you all and wish you the best new year!
By the way, down below are pics of the girls visiting Santa at our church party. Camilla asked for a horse. Santa asked if she meant a pony. She corrected him, "nope, a horse." Don't know what to do about that one. :)

Hair cut and Playing in the Rain

So I found some missing pics on my camera. So some of these are out of date. And I will post some others later. But for now, here is a little of what is going on around here and little Halloween? Am I that lame....yep!
Camilla had her first haircut. And now she looks so much bigger. Here is the before. And the after. I did it myself and was TOTALLY nervous. But I think it turned out okay.
Daddys always do the fun stuff! Kevin let the girls play in the rain and mud! Here are the soaked kids.

Running in the rain is so fun!

And then up to the tub to clean up afterwards. This is my favorite pic! And just because.....

Every once in awhile, I get a fun surprise to brighten my day. Thanks hon!

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

So since Halloween was on Sunday this year, we tried to do activities to keep celebrating. So we painting pumpkins that day and had dinner in a pumpkin for dinner. It was fun! Check out this mischievous face.

Saturday night we went to our Stake trunk-or-treat. They have a HUGE carnival with games and contests. Here is Camilla with her face painted. She was very particular about what colors to use.

Here is Emma with her butterfly.

And the Halloween costumes. Emma was Sleeping Beauty and Camilla was a pumpkin. I made the pumpkin costume when Emma was younger.

We got to go to a couple of pumpkin patches too. Here is the fam posing on the farm. :) Who knows what the pig is doing.

This pumpkin patch has a playground area with corn on the ground. The girls love it.

We went to a different pumpkin patch for preschool. We do a co-0p with other moms in the ward. It was fun. I think the kids were tired of pics.

At the pumpkin patch. Yes, I am hiding behind Camilla so you don't see my growing belly. :)

They had tons of places to pose and take your pics. Our fav...the Cinderella coach.

And they have a bunch of fake animals to 'ride' on.

And our other cow-girl!

A Little Bit of Idaho

We went to Idaho for my Grandma's funeral. I was so glad that I we could go. It was fun to see cousins that I haven't seen for awhile. Here are all my guy cousins and my two brothers (minus one on a mission). For some reason, I took like no pics on our trip....oh well. Once again, I am so grateful for the knowledge we have of being a forever family. Here are the girls in front of the headstone. My grandpa passed away 17 years ago. We are so glad they are together now!
P.S. My girls loved the snow! And they couldn't get enough of it!Playing around. Who needs a playground when you have a Daddy?

I met up with my cousin and we let our kiddos play for a bit. We hadn't seen them in forever. And we miss them still! The coveted toy at my grandma's...the horse. My girls love it!

Playing with Grandma's jewelry with my sista!

We will miss you!

We received news that my Grandma J passed away this week. I don't really have words to describe my feelings as I write this. As you go through death, there is certainly the grieving process and we are feeling that. I will miss her a lot. I grew up going to her home often, like at least once a month, sometimes more. I guess if you aren't missed, you didn't live a good enough life. :) I have been thinking a lot about past memories with her. She was a very independent woman. She spoiled us ROTTEN! And she loved us to pieces. It was fun to have her get to know my kiddos a little bit also and see her thrive in the stage of great-grandma. I have also been thinking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How would you get through death without knowing that we will all be together again? Someday, I'll get to see my Grandma again. And I am happy for her that she is with my Grandpa again.
We will miss you Grandma!

Check me out, I'm famous!

So awhile back, and if you missed it on Facebook, a girl in my ward has an etsy shop found here. I love her stuff. And she wanted my girls to pose as models. :) Here are a few pics from the photo shoot. My girls loved it! Is modeling in their future? Who knows?