A Minnesota Christmas

Truly sometimes I still think, "I can't believe we live in Minnesota."  We celebrated our third Minnesota Christmas this year.  Time flies...sorta.  

 We actually did not have a white Christmas this year!  We've barely had snow so far this winter.  These are pics from a dusting we got in early December that melted off shortly after.

I can't believe Hayden fits in this snowsuit.  We bought this for Liam our first winter here. 

 Our tree.  We went fake this year.  No regrets.

 Liam and Dad after Liam's pre-school Christmas program.  He was the best one.  And I'm not prejudice.  

pretty girl 

 another pretty girl

 Visit to Santa.  Liam asked for a Spiderman Squinkie dispenser.  Hayden asked for dolls like Ruby.  She was so brave.  And if there's a Santa, this dude is it.

 tiny baby Jesus

 Sisters exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve - Hayden gave Harper bath toys and Harper gave Hayden Pinkalicious dress-up shoes

 Pops and Nana were here!! Liam had just opened his gift from Harper - super hero cape and mask.  He liked it.  :)  This picture was taken right before we left for our Christmas Eve service at church.  Let's just say Liam and candlelight services are not the best combo.   

 Decorating cookies for Santa

 Hayden and Nana

 Hanging stockings

 Christmas morning

 Santa pulled through

Baby's first Christmas

 Harper's first stocking

 the girls

 Stockings for the grown-ups

 Kinda crazy that we are the Mom and Dad at Christmas now.  If I could choose between being the Mom or being the kid at Christmas I would choose.... I don't know...the kids have it pretty stinkin' good...ok fine... the Mom.  

 Harper's big gift from Santa

post Christmas tea party - thanks Mimi (Will's grandmother) for the tea set!

This was the year of electronics at our house.  My parents gave us a Wii, and Will's parents gave Liam a Leapster.  I should have saved my money.  Liam thought the bucket of Legos we got him was totally lame.  He was, however, totally stoked about the Angry Birds t-shirt we gave him.  What is it with Angry Birds?  Hayden's favorite gift was this little Hello Kitty bag with a necklace and two lip glosses that Will's parents gave her. She didn't like at all the totally awesome leg warmers I got her.  :(  But the Big Sister Dora doll we gave her was a hit.  I got some leg warmers for Harper and she rocks them.  

It really was a great Christmas.  My top 3 favorite moments:

We celebrated advent as a family and I love those quiet moments of family time - talking, singing and reading scripture.  

The kids and I made treats for our Bible class teachers and pre-school teachers, and I love the excitement on the kids' faces when they get to give someone else a gift.  

And I love sitting back on Christmas morning and just taking it all in - the fruits of my labor!  Totally worth all the work and preparation.   

And this was the picture that was on our Christmas card that never got sent out.  Oops!  Merry Christmas from the Copeland family!!

9 months

Nine months ago sweet Harper Claire entered this world.  I'm telling you, this girl is precious.  

And where in the world did she get those blue eyes?  She stands alone in our family with those eyes.  Someone asked the other day where her blue eyes came from and Liam said, "The mailman."  We've got to stop telling that joke in front of him.

Here's a look back at my other babies' pictures from the same age.

Hayden at 9 months old (please excuse the hiney in the background)

Harper at 9 months old

Liam at 9 months (he's been intense from the day he was born)

Harper 9 months

Harper is an easy baby.  Loves to nurse, loves to eat, loves to sleep, loves to play.  She LOVES Liam and laughs at everything he does.  Hayden tries to make her laugh but mainly just irritates her.  Harper is crawling and pulling up on everything.  She is busy busy, into everything and finds every little speck on the floor to put in her mouth (and there are lots of specks).  Her favorite things to go for are Liam's Squinkies.  If you don't know, Squinkies are these squooshy rubber action figures about the size of a baby's airway.  Thanks for that gift Nini.  Here's a perfect shot from today:

Harper has a radar for them and the minute Liam pulls them out she b-lines for them.  Captain America has gone missing. Something tells me he'll show up in a diaper in the next 24 hours.  I'll keep you posted...

I'm loving being at home with my kids.  Three is a lot, I'm not gonna lie.  Time to myself is close to zero.  The house is mostly dirty and there's not enough of me to go around.  Suddenly I feel sentimental about my days at home with them because my oldest baby is going to kindergarten in the fall!  It can't be time already!  Have I done enough?  Will he be a good boy without me looking over his shoulder?  Does he know that he's loved by his mom, dad, and God no matter what other kids say or what grades he gets?  I told Will last night we better bring our A-game in parenting this summer.  So that's the plan...  

resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! It's time to resolute.

1. Revive the Copeland story blog - check
(1b.  keep blog alive...watch and see)

2.  Read my Bible every day.
(no reading plan, just opening the Word and keeping it simple)

3. Consume less - meaning spend less, use less, waste less, and of course eat less.
(I know this is kind of vague.  Therefore, no one will be able to hold me accountable to it.)

4. Let my parenting/wifeing be defined by LISTENING and LOVING.

(as opposed to tuning-out and being irritated - anyone else feeling me on this one?)  

5.  Organize my closets.  

(This is one from last year that I'm rolling over.)

And I'll stop there.

We had a family New Years party this year.

The invite list:

Daddy
Mommy
Liam
Hayden
Harper
Lucy (dog)
Moses (cat)

Liam is all about some exclusive family time, like his dad.  The kids chose dinner for the occasion so we had hotdogs and mac-n-cheese.  We played a little Wii (the hot Christmas gift from my parents) and talked about our favorite memories from 2011.

Liam said his favorite memory was what we were doing that night -  playing the Wii and eating popcorn.



Hayden said holding baby Jesus.

This was at a birthday party for Jesus that a friend of mine hosted at our church before Christmas.  Harper tried to escape the manger.

I said Harper Claire's birth and bringing her home for the first time had to be my #1.



Will said his favorite memory was the same as mine.  So typical.

We also all agreed that flying to Texas for Uncle Ellis (Will's brother) and Aunt Heather's wedding was on our fav list too. (Liam was the ring bearer and Hayden one of the flower girls.)


We toasted with sparkling grape juice at 9:00 (preschool midnight) and tucked most of the party guests in bed.  Then Will and I partied it up til midnight.  Actually, we watched a movie and then at 11:45 I washed my face so that I could get in bed right after the ball dropped.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2012!

Inspired by preschool

I've returned to blogging, inspired by Liam's first day of preschool.  My first-born started preschool today!  Several people have asked me if I am teary or sentimental and, honestly, I'm not!  We've been talking about him going to school all summer and he's been super excited about it.  He's so independent and ready to jump right into everything with gusto.  If you've met Liam even once, you know what I mean.  So his gusto makes it easier to let him go.  He is so ready.  He is a social dude and also loves to learn.  It will also be good time for me and the girls to be together. The days that Liam is in school will be good opportunity for Hayden to rule the roost a little bit.  Under the queen's authority of course.  :)

Liam will be in school all day Monday and half a day Wednesday.  On Mondays he will go to school in the morning, stay for lunch and then Junior Gym in the afternoon.  It will be a full day from 9 to 3.  Then on Wednesdays he will just do school in the morning and come home at 11:30.  

We took the token first-day-of-school picture before we left this morning and Liam squeezed in a bike ride. (He started riding on two-wheels a couple of weeks ago!) He's in a fleece because it was in the forties this mornig!!

I don't think I was fully prepared for the stress of getting to school on time.  I felt like, "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, we can't be late, we can't be late, we can't be late.  If we are late the teacher will think I am a bad parent who can't even get her kid to school on time and then she will have negative feelings about my child and then his first day of school wont be perfect and if it's not perfect then he may not like school and if he doesn't like school then his learning will be stunted and I will never forgive myself for ruining his education just because I was late!!!!!!!!!"  All the while, I am trying to act like I'm totally chill so that Liam will be relaxed about going to school too.  Ahk!  I really like his school but the parking lot and hallways are nuts in the morning.  And they don't have drop-off so I have to cart H & H in with me.  The school is only about 5 minutes away but I buffered about 15 extra minutes to be safe.  Even with the extra time Liam walked in at 9:04 with one minute to spare before 9:05 circle time!!  Ahk!

The kids were asked to bring their favorite stuffed animal this morning.  Liam chose his ground hog that Pops gave him.  He hung his back pack and jacket up and walked right into his classroom with his ground hog and all the confidence in the world.  Love that boy.  He's one in a million.

Here he is home from school.  He was pumped about wearing his new tiger shirt to school.  

Liam only had good things to say about his day so I think it was a great start!  He told me about all the stuffed animals that the other kids had brought.  He had crackers for a snack and played with his friend Lucas at recess.  He came home with a handful of pictures that he had colored, "for his dad" he said.  Very sweet but what about me?  Didn't I walk through fire to get you to school this morning?  :)

Cherishing these days...

the birth story

Harper Claire Copeland made her appearance at 9:24 am on Saturday, April 9th, 2011! She is so precious and perfect! 7 lb. 15 oz., 20 3/4 inches.

I'm going to give the gorey labor details so skip this part if words like mucous plug gross you out.

On Friday, Will took me and the kids to Culver's for dinner and then headed to work for the night. The kids and I came home and did a little cleaning to get ready for Mom and Dad. They had left Little Rock that afternoon, planning to stop halfway in Kansas City for the night and drive on into Rochester Saturday morning. I was so excited to have them in town but part of me was thinking, "oh my word, what if they get here, stay a week and there's no baby!" I was praying that once they were in town this cervix of mine would just relax already.

I got the kids in bed, watched a little tv, piddled around the house a little more and then got ready for bed. When I went to the bathroom I saw that I had lost my mucous plug. I called Will and shared the happy news. He was ecstatic. (sarcasm) So in my mind I was thinking, "this is good. something's going to happen in the next couple of days."

I got in bed around 11:30, and about 12:30 I felt Harper move and thought I felt my water break. When I stood up I KNEW that my water had broken. I called Will and he got ready to head home. I called Mom too and let her know that we would definitely have a baby this week. What perfect timing! Thank you Lord!

After packing some last minute things for the hospital, I got back in bed to try to get some sleep. Will got home and got in bed, but I was starting to have contractions and couldn't sleep so I got up and walked around the house. My contractions weren't very regular - every 7 minutes, 5 minutes, 8 minutes, 3 minutes - but I was pretty uncomfortable, having to stop and focus to get through them. By 4:30 am, I told Will that I thought we should go to the hospital. He called Laura Shotts and she came over to stay with the kids. Thank you Laura!

We got to the hospital about 5:30 am. A nurse took us to triage first. She asked me if I wanted an epidural and I almost punched her. Will saw the wild look in my eyes and scrambled for the birth plan. (We had Liam and Hayden naturally, and that was the plan for Harper too. And I'll admit, I get a little crazy about any hospital person that messes with me.) The midwife came in, checked my cervix and I was 5 centimeters dilated. 5 centimeters! Crap, I was thinking. With Liam I checked in to the hospital at 8 centimeters and with Hayden I was 9 1/2 centimeters. Will said he was thinking the same thing. I thought I was having contractions harder than 5 centimeter contractions!

We were moved to a labor room with a tub and I labored for about 3 hours - 3 hard hours. At some point an anesthesiologist came in and wanted to check my airway. What?? Apparently it's standard procedure at Mayo for each patient to have their airway checked. I was probably about 7 centimeters dilated and in the throws of hard labor. I wasn't speaking but I was thinking, "stay the heck away from me and my airway." My hot labor coach/husband came to the rescue and said thanks but no thanks. The anesthesiologist insisted, but Will insisted more and finally appeased her with, "why don't you come back later." I love that man. He is my rock in labor - speaks for me, protects me, encourages me.

The last hour or so of labor I was in the tub. I hadn't labored in water with my first two so that was new. I'm not sure it helped that much with the pain but it was something to do to pass time. I started to feel like I wanted to push so I got out of the tub and Lisa, the midwife, checked my cervix again. She said I was almost 10 centimeters but had just a little rim of cervix left. She said getting on my hands and knees would help.

After a couple major contractions on my hands and knees I started pushing. I pushed on all fours for a little while with no progress. Lisa moved me to a squatting position - still not much progress. Then I leaned back in the traditional semi-reclining position. Harper was coming down some but just not staying down. Lisa suggested I lay on my side and pull my legs back. I have never moved around so much trying to push a baby out. The pain was outrageous. I'm a very quiet laborer, as in totally silent. But when I had to move around to push there was definitely some whimpering and crying. I told Will to pull it together and quit his crying. (ha ha) Lisa thought pushing on my side would help Harper get out from underneath my pelvis. She was right. Finally, at 9:24 am, after about an hour total of pushing, that sweet baby girl came out.

Come to find out, Harper was sunny-side up. Babies ideally come out face down, which allows their heads to mold to the birth canal. If they are face-up their heads can't really mold and it's harder to get them out. One of the midwives also told me that it can make labor more intense. I guess that's why I felt like my contractions were stronger than 5 centimeter contractions when we got to the hospital. Lisa said that when Harper crowned she was face up and then she turned her little head down on her own and came right out. So amazing! There is nothing like the feeling of that baby coming out and finally being in your arms. The pain is gone and some say their memory of the pain is gone, but I can't seem to shake that memory yet. Of the three, Harper's delivery was by far the hardest. But of course SO worth it.

In her daddy's arms for the first time

Harper nursed for about 45 minutes after she was born. I didn't have to have stitches this time around - which was awesome. Harper was weighed and measured and then wanted to nurse again. She's a nursing champ. We moved to our recovery room by noon, and Zeke and Laura brought the kids up to the hospital to meet their baby sister. Liam was so excited. Hayden was a little unsure. I think she prefers Happy Meals over baby sisters.

Laura played a major part in giving me peace of mind through it all. I knew my kids were in good hands. Thank you so much Zeke and Laura!

Mom and Dad were at the hospital by 1:30 that afternoon. I can't get over the perfect timing!

This is our wonderful midwife. I'm not sure I could have pushed Harper out without her guiding me through it. I had great nurses too. My experience at Mayo over all was really good.

Dressed for home

We were discharged Sunday morning and headed home to a full house. Home sweet home!

No shortage of love in this house! I'm so thankful to God for the blessing of Harper. To Him be the glory!

tender-hearted and hard-headed

Liam is an amazing mix of his parents. I won't say which one of us gave him his tender heart and which the hard head. However, he has been blessed with both.

Yesterday morning Liam watched the movie Homeward Bound. It's an old movie that I remember watching as a kid. Towards the end of the movie, the golden retriever Shadow falls into a hole and can't get out. You don't know if he makes it out until the very end when he comes limping out of the woods and reunites with his little owner Peter. Well, after Shadow falls in the hole, next thing I know Liam's looking up at me with tears welling up in his eyes and pouring down his face. He cried all the way through the end and kept crying afterwards. It was the sweetest thing. And he didn't quite know what to do with how that movie made him feel. He'd never cried over a movie before. Then of course our dog Lucy was the great love of his life for the day. So much for me trying to get rid of her any time soon....

Here's Hayden singing a little number and at the end you can hear Liam asking for Lucy:

So we let Lucy inside to play and have a treat...

His face says it all

Oh Lucy we hope you never fall in a hole

a little treat - licking out a peanutbutter jar

Poor Liam followed his emotional morning with an emotional afternoon. Will gave him a haircut, and Liam HATES haircuts. He fights it and fights it and fights it somemore.

Many many tears, a very frustrated daddy, and over 2 HOURS later the haircut was complete.

Hayden was just strolling around in the midst of Liam's weeping and knashing of teeth.

FYI...I am still pregnant. Mom and Dad have decided to go ahead and come up on Saturday. YAY!!!! I've had major anxiety this week with Will being gone at night, having random contractions, waiting for labor to start so I can tell everyone to start making the drive from Arkansas. And it's just not like me to be so anxious! Now that I have a for sure day of Saturday to look towards I'm feeling more calm. So come on down Harper!