Me and my hubbs

I stole this from Sarah and thought it was rather cute!

♥ What are your middle names? Samuel and Lynne

♥ How long have you been together? If you're counting what we like to refer to the "before and after", together it adds up to almost 3 years and married for almost 1!

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? Back in high school it was about 6 weeks. We we started "re"dating, it was 8 years.

♥Who asked who out? Nate. He just couldn't resist haha ;)

♥ How old were each of of you when you started dating? Both 16.

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most? I'd say it's about even.

♥ Do you have any children together? Aiden-5 weeks old

♥What about pets? Negative.

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Dealing with my ex-husband. Only 13 years 9 months and counting...

♥ Did you go to the same school? High school

♥ Are you from the same home town? Nope, he's from Dallas, TX and I'm from Salem, OR.

♥ Who is the smartest? We're both pretty equal, but he's got the paper (his degree) to prove it!

♥ Who is the most sensitive? I'd probably have to say Nate. Neither one of us are sappy sensitive, but I think he's a little more so than I.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? Haha, MoBettah Steaks! So freakin tasty!!! MMMMMMM.

♥ Who has the worst temper? Both of us are pretty cool headed, but if one were to snap before the other, it would probably be me.

♥ Who does the cooking? We both do a pretty even amount actually. It's pretty nice!

♥ Who is more social? We both are, although I think I've become a little less so over the years. But we still could talk someone's ear off! :D

♥ Who is the neat-freak? Hands down Nate!

♥ Who is the more stubborn? Ha, we both are!

♥ Who hogs the bed? Me I suppose. Apparently I forced him out of the bed last night. I have no recollection of this!

♥ Who wakes up earlier? Nate. I could sleep forever if I was allowed to do so!

♥ Where was your first date? As poor high school students, we went out and got Slurpees and talked the night away!

♥ Who has the bigger family? Me. I've got family coming out my ears!

♥ Do you get flowers often? Once in a while, but just often enough :)

♥ How do you spend Christmas? We've only been able to spend one Christmas together, but we spent Christmas Eve going out to Chinese with my family, Christmas Eve night with Nate's family, the first part of Christmas Day at home, and then headed over to my dad's to open presents.

♥ Who is more jealous? Neither actually. That's never been a problem with us, thank goodness!

♥ How long did it take to get serious? Few weeks.

♥ Who eats more? Nate. Men always eat more, right?

♥ Who does/did the laundry? Both, but I think I spend the most time folding it!

♥ Who’s better with the computer? We've both pretty savy, but I think Nate wins this one. He's worked with some software programs that I don't even have a clue about!

♥Who drives when you are together? Nate.

I tag...

whoever is bored like I am! ;)

The case of the mysteriously soaking child

I'm quite the little domestic CSI! Here's how I solved the case...

Tuesday night as Nate and I were getting ready for bed, I went in to check on Katelyn. I felt that her room was a bit cool, so I went over to her bed to put another blanket on her. I grabbed one of her blankets from off the floor and half of it was soaked! So, the first thing I think is "Poor kid had an accident." I checked her underwear and sure enough she was soaked. Funny thing about it, though, is the bed was bone dry! Hmmmmmmm. I'm thoroughly confused at this point. I woke up Katelyn so she could change her clothes. I said "Katelyn, I need you to wake up. We need to change you panties" and the first thing she says is "Why?" I snickered because she was SOOOOOO out of it! She didn't even have a clue! After getting a chuckle, I then thought about it. On the occasion that Katelyn would have an accident, she knows it immediately. So at this point, I know something is off here. After getting Katelyn changed and back into bed, I take the aforementioned wet items and start walking them over to the washer. As I walk past the bathroom, I see an interesting sight. I see the toilet, SEAT UP mind you, with toilet paper hanging from the toilet seat and on up to the toilet paper roll. After looking at this for a couple seconds, the mystery is finally solved! Katelyn didn't wet the bed, she got up to use the bathroom and in her completely tired and very out of it state, she fell into the toilet! Even after falling in, you'd think she would have shot awake, right? Nope! She continued to remain completely out of it and just crawled back into bed! It took me a while to go to bed that night because I spent so long laughing! Oh my little funny girl :)

If you ever have a mysterious crayon drawing on the wall or graham crackers sprawled over the kitchen floor, give me a call! I'll crack the case!

BWAHAHAHA!!! ;)

Aiden's Homecoming and Fathers Day

I'm slowly, but surely going to catch up on my blogging ;)

We came home with Aiden from the hospital on Friday the 19th, which was right before Fathers day, so Nate got to enjoy his first Fathers Day with our new little addition to the family! Once we got home, my mom (Gramma Lane), gramma (Great-Gramma Hinman), and Sami came over to visit and finally meet Aiden. Katelyn, of course, was there too :). Once both grammas got their share of Aiden, they decided to take Katelyn out for a bit so that Mom and Dad could get a bit of a much needed rest! It was definitely a very nice and quiet start at home with lil Aiden!





Sunday was, of course, Fathers Day. It also was a pretty quiet day, but once Katelyn came home after being gone for the day, Nate finally got his Fathers Day present from Katelyn and Aiden. For Nate's first Fathers Day present, what did he get? Why, none else than a TIE! It wasn't just any tie either; it was a University of Utah tie! How could I resist helping the girls be ultimately stereotypical and cheesy for their dad's first Fathers Day? Haha!


Katelyn and Nate with his stellar tie


Aiden and Nate having a chat

Here are also some other pictures from the weekend and Aiden coming home :D


Katelyn showing off how she can be a good big sister!


Mommy giving Aiden lots of kisses!


This picture of my brother, Keegan, and Aiden cracks me up! :D


Snuggle bug Aiden with Grandpa


Sisters!


Youngest Farm Town player on Facebook (she's really working on my farm! HAHAHAHA!!!)


My cute family! Love them to death!


That's my squeaker!

Aiden's Birth Story

I know this is a couple weeks coming, but I've finally had a break in all the visits from family and friends, not to mention my sheer exhaustion, to finally get the story down of how Aiden finally arrived in this world!

As many of you know, I spent the prior 1-1/2 weeks before Aiden was born regularly contracting (5-10 minutes). They grew in intensity over time. Tuesday night before Aiden was born, I spent the whole night up contracting and I seriously thought we were going to the hospital! I spent the night sitting on the couch because laying down was WAY too uncomfortable during my contractions. Nate was sweet and fell asleep on the other couch as I literally sat and rocked back and forth during my contractions. I just happened to have an appointment with my OB Wednesday morning, for which I was grateful for! I went in for my appointment and talked to Dr. Pead about how I was up all night with intense contractions. He checked me and said I was at a solid 3, to which I then groaned. All night contracting and I was only at a 3?!?! ACK! As we continued to talk, he asked if I would be willing to go into the hospital that day to be induced. He wanted to induce me the week before, but I wheeled and dealed with the doc to give me a week to try and get Aiden out on my own haha. I have a chronic kidney condition, so he was really wanting me to be induced ASAP. After the night I had just had, I had NO problems being sent over to the hospital! The doc scheduled me to show up right around lunchtime, so I then went home to start rearing up the troops!

I walked in the door, and Katelyn and Nate were still lounging around. I had a little smirk on my face and said "Time to start packing things up, we're going to the hospital!" Nate kind of chuckled and started getting real excited about things finally getting going. I think he spent more time on the phone telling people that we were headed to the hospital than getting things ready to go haha ;). Before we left the house, I sat down with Katelyn and talked to her about how we were going to the hospital, so Aiden could finally come out and meet everyone. She squealed with excitement, which absolutely cracked me up! We got all our stuff and Katelyn put into the car, and then dropped Katelyn off at my dad's house. Nate and I then went and grabbed a bite to eat, because I knew once I walked into the hospital they wouldn't let me have anything!

We then got to the hospital a little after noon and got checked in without much of a hitch. Much didn't happen the first couple of hours we were at the hospital because my doc wanted me to get my first dose of penicillin before they started cranking up the Pitocin. The nurse gradually titrated it up and after a while my contractions were getting quite intense. My nurse kept chuckling everytime she came into check on me and bump up the Pit because I was just chilling in bed reading or playing on my laptop. Once my contractions did start to get intense, I was walking around my room because I still couldn't stand to be in bed with how intense the contractions were getting. Right at 6 p.m. my nurse came in and I told her I was finally ready for my epidural. The anesthesiologist was in my room within almost seconds, YEA! As he's prepping me, he asks me what my pain rating is during my contractions. Just knowing they were getting pretty crazy painful, but not sure exactly what to rate them, I said "Uhhhh, a 6 maybe?" About 30 seconds later, I had a contraction that I started groaning during, just to get through it! The anesthesiologist said "That sure doesn't SOUND like a 6! You're supposed to call me BEFORE you get to this point! Quit trying to be so tough!" By that time, the contraction had ended, so I was able to actually laugh at what he said instead of bitch slapping him! A few minutes later I had my epidural in and I was glad to have it done. I love having epidurals, but the process has made me nervous both times. I wasn't so nervous this time because it wasn't 3 a.m. and my anesthesiologist hadn't just woken from a deep sleep like with Katelyn ;). I hadn't had my epidural for more than 2 minutes when the nurse told me that Dr. Pead would be in shortly to break my water. No sooner had she said this, I was just barely beginning to feel the tingling in my legs (not even numb yet, just tingly) when I felt a big POP. My initial thought was that Aiden and just head-butted my cervix, but then I realized that my water had just broken. Because the nurse hadn't even left the room yet from my epidural being done, I looked at her and said "Um, I think my water just broke!" I wasn't entirely sure because the doctor had to break my water with Katelyn. So, the nurse checked me and said "Yep, you sure did! That's amnoitic fluid!" I was really happy that my water had broken on it's own this time! I was so dissapointed that I had to be induced, that I was glad that something had occurred on it's own! Not to mention, it's a heck of a lot less painful for it to happen on it's own!!! Literally 60 seconds after my water broke, Dr. Pead walked in to break my water, just to find out it already had, to which I exclaimed to everyone "Yea! No giant crochet hook!" Those of you who have had your water artificially broken know EXACTLY what I'm talking about! Thirty minutes after getting my epidural, I was still feeling my legs pretty good. I could have walked with my legs if I wanted to. Not to mention, I could still feel my contractions with pretty good intensity and I had a lot of pelvic pressure. I had the anesthesiologist come back in and up the dose on my epidural. I was borderline C-section dose! I couldn't figure out why I was having such problems! Fortunately, upping the dose helped with that, which made me feel much better because all I could think was "If I went through all that trouble to get an epidural, it sure as HELL better WORK!!!" After about an hour, I finally felt comfortable! Woo hoo!

Nate and I spent the next 1-1/2 hours hanging out and chatting. Close to 8:30 p.m., I began to feel some pressure, similar to the pressure I was feeling before my epidural fully kicked in. At first I thought maybe it was beginning to wear off and then I thought that Aiden might finally be ready to come out. I wasn't entirely sure because when I was checked about an hour prior, I was at a 6+. My nurse was only a couple minutes out from checking on me, so I waited for her to come in. I told her I was feeling pressure and she checked me. Not only was I fully dilated, but Aiden's head was most definitely there! The nurse quickly got Dr. Pead and got everything else ready for Aiden to be pushed out. Once Dr. Pead was in there, I started pushing. It only took one contraction to get her out (I know, don't shoot me!). I pushed 4 times during the contraction, I barely had a second to catch my breath in between pushes, but that's all it took for sweet Aiden to come into this world!

Here she is moments after being born!


Aiden Nicole Soules was born June 17, 2009, at 8:50 p.m. She was 7 lb. 10 oz. and 18.5 inches long.




Only a few minutes after Aiden was born, our families were already en route to the hospital to come and see her. Nate's parents had to fly out early Thursday morning for the Tab Choir tour, so it was a good thing Aiden was born early enough in the night so they could see her before they left for 2 weeks. My dad and Melissa also came up with Katelyn, so she could meet her new baby sister!

Here's the proud big sister!


I'm so glad that she is finally here and a part of our family!

Jam packed "Mommy's Day" weekend!

Katelyn didn't like saying Mothers Day, so the according to her the official title of the holiday was "Mommy's Day". ;)

Wow! What a weekend! I practically needed a wheelchair by the end of it to get me around, but I persevered! Friday started out with Nate's commencement at the U of U. He officially graduated in December, but they had all the Fall graduates walk in the sping commencement ceremony. I only made it to the convocation, which is where he basically just got to walk and get his degree. That's okay with me! The seats in the Huntsman center were not designed for pregnant women! Not to mention, I had a man of rather "large stature" sitting next to me, so it was like sitting in an airplane seat. Uber comfy, right? Haha.





I'm super proud of my cute husband and all of his accomplishments. Now if we could just get the economy to cooperate, so he could get a new job!

(BTW 33 weeks, 3 days here for those of you wanting belly shots!)



After all the graduation festivities on campus, we had a graduation party for Nate at Pat's BBQ as per the request of the celebrated graduate. If any of you in Utah have never been to Pats BBQ, GO! It's the best you'll find in the state, seriously!

Saturday, even though I wanted to do a whole lot of nothing, kids don't let you do that so much! Katelyn was just DYING to get outside and play, and I can't break my little girl's heart, so we went for a spin on the trike. She had been begging all week to ride her bike outside and the weather was finally cooperating enough. She's a little cruiser!



Sunday was obviously "Mommy's Day". I was given the gift of sleep and was awoken to Katelyn and Nate bringing me breakfast in bed. Although, the first thing I hear when they come in is "Happy Mommy's Day Mommy! I bought you Stewie!" Katelyn had seen a Family Guy DVD at the store with Stewie on the cover and since she knows that I love Family Guy, she insisted they get it as my present. Is it sad that my 4-year-old knows this? Haha...

We went to church at my dad's ward, because ours is the latest block, so we could go and have a marshmallow war at the park! Haven't done one of those in a while, so it was fun! I'm sure it is very fun for you all to imagine the 8-month pregnant lady trying to sprint around the park shooting with a marshmallow gun! Nate had never participated in a marshmallow war and frankly thought we were all crazy in the first place for having them! Needless to say, he got into it rather quickly and had fun! We'll infuse a little bit of redneck into that boy if it kills me ;)


Preparing for the assault


Grandpa instructing Katelyn on how to USE the ammo and not EAT the ammo


Keegan


The hubbs reloading


Ready to take a shot at Mommy


GOOOOOOOOOOO!

Busy, busy as it was, it was a great and wonderful weekend!

Itsy bitsy, teeny weenie

No, not a yellow polka dot bikini. Yeah, as if I could even DREAM of a swimsuit body at the moment...

Actually, I've come to the realization that I have forgotten a TON about tiny little newborn babies. For example, how TINY they actually are! The last couple of days I've been in full out nesting mode and pulling out all the baby stuff that has been packed away. Clothes? Itty bitty! Last night I was working on the carseat carrier and adjusting it back to newborn size. My jaw just about hit the floor thinking "Wow! That baby is going to fit in those tiny little straps?!?!"

As much as I look at Katelyn and think there's no way she's getting as big as she probably appears, she is! I've definitely lost touch with Babyland, but I suppose that happens when you've got 4 years in between the two kids. I'll probably do and think the same things that I did with Katelyn. When I brought Katelyn home from the hospital, all 5-pounds 9-ounces of her, I always felt like I was going to break her because she was so little! I'm sure I'll be the same way again since it's been a while since I've been entrusted with the 24/7 care of a newborn.

Crazy, crazy...I'll be bringing home a new itty bitty one in just a few weeks! Here's to hoping that remembering all that newborn stuff is just like riding a bike... ;)

Comic relief of the house...

Katelyn does and says some of the funniest things. I really should be better about writing these things down so I can remember them!

For one, a few weeks ago we went to dinner with my side of the family to Lonestar for some good and juicy steak! Katelyn, being the cheese that she is, decided on macaroni and cheese and made sure the waiter knew that is what she wanted. Well, a couple weeks later, we had a late night doing things around town and we needed somewhere to grab a bite to eat. Katelyn, yet again, wanted to go somewhere with mac and cheese, so we decided to just swing by Dee's since they have it on their kids menu. While we're sitting there waiting for our food to come out, Katelyn turns to me and says "Mommy, I want to go to 'Lonestar' to get macaroni and cheese!" First of all it was funny that she even remembered the name of the restaurant that we went to a couple weeks ago. Second of all, for whatever reason, she put 'Lonestar' in air quote. Kid you not! I can't ever recall using air quotes around Katelyn, so I have NO IDEA where she picked it up from, not to mention why she thought it was an appropriate time to use them! AWESOME...



Also a couple of weeks ago, we went to a friend's reception. The reception hall had a big dance floor just BEGGING Katelyn to go out and dance on it. She kept saying that she just HAD to go and dance on the floor, especially with the piano music playing just off the floor. After a couple spins, she ends up dragging Nate onto the floor to dance with her. She then starts to fling herself backwards, to which I ask her "What on earth are you doing?" She's like "Duh, Mommy! I'm DIPPING myself!" HAHAHA! I'm sure she's picked up the dipping with dancing from all her favorite princess movies and what not, and being the little princess that she is, has to do it too! I fortunately was able to snap a shot of her fantastic dance moves!



Seriously, the kid just cracks me up...