Love Days

We have been so blessed with our beautiful, healthy, amazing children! God has been so gracious to us and we are so thankful. The past few days have been so full of love and excitement and joy! I'm amazed at how merciful and good God is, that He has made a time that I was truthfully dreading, and made it so happy and joyful!

Our Ali Grace! She is already changing so much! She is absolutely beautiful! We just love her so much! I can't believe how much our love has increased, but it has!
Our sweet Jack! He is so much fun! He's getting used to things slowly, but surely. He is a little more whiney and a little less obedient lately, but he's doing alright. Nana has been keeping him occupied a lot of the time, and that has been a great blessing.
Nana, Ali Grace, and Jack. So sweet! Daddy's little girl. She looks SOOO tiny when he holds her.
Jack is very curious about Ali Grace. He pats her and lays his head on her like he's giving her a hug. He has tried to take her out of my arms and hold her a couple of times, he doesn't quite understand why we won't let him do that. He is very curious about this whole nursing thing and about the "boots" as he calls them (boobs). haha. He is already a good big brother. :)

Our Ali Grace

Alison Grace Chisholm was born at 10:28 a.m. on Wednesday, September 10, 2008. The labor was about 10 1/2 hours long and I got an epidural after around 8 hours. I only pushed for 10 minutes and it was sooo fast! We are so blessed that our Ali Grace is here and healthy!

Mommy, Daddy, and Ali Grace's first picture together.
She was such a big surprise! Right before she was born I looked over at Brian and asked what he thought the baby was, and he said a boy. All of the doctor's and nurses in the room were so excited. And then there she was, our Ali Grace! Praise God! She is beautiful! The labor was perfect and her heartbeat was perfect the entire time--not one abnormality! She is such a miracle to us!
Ali Grace stayed awake the whole time she was in the nursery after being born. When they brought her to us Brian wrapped her up really good and she went straight to sleep and slept in his arms for 2 hours! She just wanted her Daddy! I think this was the moment that she wrapped him around her little finger.
Grandmamma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amanda came to see us Thursday and helped us pack up and go home. We left a little over 24 hours after she was born because we were both doing so well.
She looks so tiny in her car seat! I remeber when Jack was that little and going hom for the first time in this seat! He wore that same hat too. :)

Welcome Alison Grace!

Alison Grace Chisholm was born at 10:28 AM this morning. She weighs 8lbs 3oz and 19.5 inches long. Both Baby and Mom are doing great.

39 weeks!!!

I don't go to the doctor until Wednesday, but I wanted to put some belly pics up now, because I could really go into labor AT ANY MOMENT...so...

"Ma'am is that a torpedo under your shirt?"

It really is HUGE!

In this one it almost eclipses that beautiful little boy next to it!

WHOA!

And here are my men who I love to pieces!!! I love watching Brian read to Jack, it's one of my favorite things.

I've been having Braxton-Hicks (Hix?) contractions a good bit--several each day--so I don't think it will be too much longer. We are on full alert here, and so are our parents. It could be anytime! Wow! I can't believe we're here already!

The Best Tent EVVVVVER!

Saturday morning Brian made a tent in our living room for Jack, and we have had a blast with it! Jack LOVES it! It's his first tent ever--Mommy tried to make one once, and it was pathetic, so it doesn't count. :)

More Nesting

I'm still feathering our little nest!!! It's been really fun! The frames are now up and I love them! I'm going to have to change some of the pictures with new ones of the baby once it's born, but I couldn't wait. :)


Another project I finished today is re-purposing this old desk. We've had it since I moved out of the "vertical trailer" that I lived in with Crystal and Kim. Kim wanted to get rid of it, and I was happy to take it off her hands. I think it used to be David's--so Kim and David will appreciate this makeover.

Before:

During:


After:
My new bedside table! I love it!

Before this I just had a small set of shelves, so now I have tons more space and storage.

How Distressing!

I have a new love--distressing and painting furniture, frames, or anything that I can pin down long enough!!!! YEAH!

Have I mentioned that I'm nesting yet??? Yeah, I thought I had--My name is Christina and I am a crazed nesting mother.

But since we have pretty much what we need for the baby, and I can't buy any gender-specific items yet, I've been focusing my nesting on the common areas of the house. We have not hung anything on the walls and we've been here for over a year, but now I'm planning BIG things for our walls and I'm so excited!

One of the big things came from a picture in a decorating book I bought for a dollar at a garage sale--SCORE! The pic was of an arrangement of rustic painted frames. So I drew out an arrangement of different sizes of frames for Brian to build, we used my awesome Lowe's gift card to buy wood, and he built 8 handmade wodden frames for me!!!! My man is the greatest!!!!!!!! :) Then I used pliers, a wrench, and some sandpaper to "distress" them. After this step my awesome man had to reinforce a few of the frames because I got a little carried away and they started falling apart! Oops! Then I painted them various colors and then made a wash with black and brown paint and water that I wiped over them. It was soooooooooooo much fun!!!!!!!!!! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the frames! I can't wait to put pictures in them and hang them on our dining room wall! I'm enamored with them! :)

Here's the whole line up. I love them all in their own special way...except that bright blue one on the left end---he has perplexed me and I'm still trying to figure out his color.

These above are my 2 favorites--I think.

And these two are so beautiful! Brian decided to make a couple out of cedar and they came out fabulous!

Before the Rain

Now that Hurricane Gustav is planted firmly over us we are getting DRENCHED!!! But before the rain came we had lots of fun in the sun!

It started as just playing outside, but then Brian got the hose out, and then I suggested the sprinkler, and Jack was in heaven! He had so much fun!

He ran around and around, in and out. His faces were great!

After the sprinkler, Brian made a mud puddle for Jack, and he loved that too. I tried to get him to pick up some mud, but he just wanted to splash.

Look at that muddy booty! :)

Then Daddy hosed the little man down and stripped him down and we went inside for Jack FAVORITE thing---A BATH!!!! So he had a big morning--and then he took a good long nap!

Baby Chisholm Update

PRAISE GOD!!!!

I went to the OB today and she said that the baby's heartbeat is absolutely normal!!!! We are so excited and so thankful! Dr. Buckner said that we're still going to be careful with monitoring us during delivery, but that everything looks great! AND....I'm 1 cm dillated!!! So, I could go into labor tomorrow, or in a couple weeks--so though it doesn't change that much, it's still exciting, and a little scary that we're going to have a BABY in not too long! :)