No Name Collins

My sister Michelle went in to her doctor for a regular appointment on Monday and didn't get to leave. They sent her over to the hospital next door to monitor the baby and decided to induce her. She couldn't have picked a better day! Alan had the day off and we were on our way to Ikea (right by the hospital) when I got the phone call. Since we had a few hours until they would get things started Alan and I did our shopping and he dropped me off at the hospital around 2:00pm. They finally got the pitocin started around 5:00pm and she started having contractions right away. They didn't get bad for a few hours but then everything moved crazy fast.
I was so glad that Michelle's mother in law was able to come and help me coach because she's a nicu nurse and she was so calm and knew exactly what to do. I would have to say that I didn't do to bad considering I've never been in labor myself and have no idea how it feels or what to do. I did take the classes years ago and did some crash studying online so that helped. My sister is so amazing, I couldn't believe how strong she was. I think she's a freaken rock star, this is her second time delivering totally natural. She didn't even have pain killers this time, there just wasn't time.
We thought she was at a 4 when all of sudden she felt like she needed to push. The doctor had just come in to check on her and decided to check her again. She was at an 8 and moving fast. She was able to hold off for a little while longer and give all the support doctors and nurses time to get there and get things set up. It was absolute madness for about 30 minutes or so. It was an amazing thing to witness. I'm so grateful for the experience of being able to see a new life brought into this world. Her labor was a total of 6 hours but the more active labor only lasted about 3
hours. My little nephew has no name yet, they just haven't been able to decide what fits him best. So for now he's no name Collins. No name is a cute little bugger, he's charmed everyone that meets him. He weighed in at 7lbs 2oz and was 20 inches long. He has a calm, peaceful demeanor. My brother in law Nick says that'll give him something to thank the Lord for every day. He's like me and we hate to hear a baby cry.
Anyway, here's some picture to tell the story!

Big brother Landon tearing up the hospital.

I Promised...

I promised that I would post a picture of my new nephew today and I keep my promises. Even if it's minutes before midnight. I'll post the story and more pictures tomarrow.

IT'S OURS!!!!!

I'M DANCING AROUND AND SCREAMING RIGHT NOW! WE GOT THE HOUSE, IT' OURS!!!!!!

NOW WE JUST NEED TO FINALIZE OUR LOAN AND WE CAN FINALLY MOVE OUT OF THIS TINY HOUSE WE'RE IN. WE'RE HOPING TO CLOSE BY THE MIDDLE OF MAY AND MOVE IN 2 WEEKS LATER. WE'LL NEED TO PULL OUT CARPET AND PUT IN HARDWOOD FLOORS. WE ALSO HAVE TO PAINT PRETTY MUCH EVER INCH OF IT. I CAN'T STINKING WAIT TO GET STARTED!

Let them eat cake!

I felt like a total dork when we were ready to cut the cake because I stated tearing up. I was just overwhelmed. I still can't believe my 8+ month pregnant friend Natalie took this cake on for me. It was a labor of love for me and for Tallula and it was hard for me to cut it up. I just wanted to lacquer it and keep it forever!
Lula took her time and picked at it like a lady. We tried to get her to dive in but she just picked away daintily. She was in a bit of a daze for most of the party. For the rest of the day she wouldn't take a nap. It was as if she knew this day was all about her and she wasn't going to miss a minute.

THE CAKE!!!

Lula's party was awesome yesterday. I've got so many pictures that I'll break it up into a few posts. We may as well start with the coolest, sweetest, awesomest part...the cake. Natalie did not disappoint with her mad baking skills. This is the cutest cake I have ever seen. The cake was a three day process. First she made the cakes, one layer was from scratch and another was a box cake. I don't know how she does it but she makes a box cake taste like heaven. She says she undercooks it so I'm going to have to give it a try. Friday she came over with all her gear, she has a tool box full of cake making secret weapons. She assembled the cake, frosted it, dyed the fondant, rolled it out, covered the cake, etc. I'm over simplifying a difficult task, but you get the idea. I rolled all the little fondant balls and cut out the polka dots. Once the cake was assembled I put the polka dots on while Natalie made Lula her very own mini cake. The topper is just 17 gage wire that I shaped, then hung little crystals from Taylor bedroom chandelier. Pretty sweet!!

Taylor turned 11 today!

My baby, the first one I had anyway turned 11 today. I can't really believe how quickly they grow up. Tomorrow we are having Lula's first birthday party and it seems to me that I was just having that party for Taylor. But no, we've had 10 other birthdays since that first one. She's such an old soul as well, she seems even older than 11 to me.
I'm so grateful for her, I call her my right hand man. She doesn't like that though, she says she'd rather be my right hand girl. Without my right hand girl I couldn't make it through the day. Well I'm sure I could, it would just be more stressful. For example, she does the dishes for me every single day. If I need something she's always available, willing to help. I don't have to hear complaining or whining from her, just a cheerful "sure" or "what do you need". What a blessing that is!
She told me today that her best present was finding out that we probably get the house. I guess Taylor and Tanner had talked about how great it would be if we got the house on one of their birthdays. Forget an IPod or clothes from Justice, all this kid wants is a home for her family.
Taylor is the best kind of kid. The kind every mother wishes for, the kind every mother hopes for. Lucky me huh!

HOUSE UPDATE!

Ok guys, I know some of you have even less patience than I do so it's time for an update! My realtor just called and...are you ready? The bank has counter offered us!!! It's not a terrible counter offer either. They raised the price about 20,000 so we're counter offering 5,000 less and we still want them to pay closing. So we'll see what happens. But the good new is that the house is ours, it's all just down to the nitty gritty now.
The catch...yes there's a catch. Our renters in Georgia didn't pay rent this month and I'm possibly going to have to evict them. We don't have the money to pay two mortgages so we could be looking at some crap hitting the fan in Georgia. We're going to have to figure out a way to scrape together the money to pay the Georgia mortgage until we close on the house here or we're in really deep doodoo and we won't be able to get the house here. Say a prayer and wish us luck, we need it!

Thanks for all the love and support! It really touches me how much people care about our happiness and well being.

Jumping for Joy

We're jumping for joy around here that Spring is on it's way!

Gameworks

For Tanners birthday we took him to Gameworks in Seattle. He was in HEAVEN! There isn't much in this world that Tanner loves more than video games so it was like a dream come true for him. He was giddy with excitement all day. He kept saying "this is the best day of my life", it was so cute. Grandma Rigtrup watched the other kids so we could just spend a special day with Tanner. We opened presents and ate cake and ice cream at Grandma and Grandpa afterwards. So now it's one birthday down and two more to go this week.