Happy Birthday Maddox!

This post is so be-lated! 2 months to be exact. Keeping up with 2 boys and keeping them out of trouble is a lot of work, but more on that later.
April 24th, 2014 was Maddox's 1st birthday! He had such an exciting first year of life! He learned how to sit, crawl, stand, walk, and talk. He had a lot of fun visits to the doctor, a few fun visits to the hospital, one surgery, one concussion, and a baby brother. Typing this I sound like a horrible mom. I promise we love and protect our kids. Don't go calling social services :)
This is the sweetest boy you will ever meet. He steals the hearts of everyone he meets. He loves everyone, you can tell he is just the sweetest soul, and he is just flat out adorable.
At 1 year old he weighs a whopping 20 pounds! He's 29 inches tall! He has adorable green eyes, reddish/brownish/blondish hair, and the longest eyelashes I have ever seen on a little boy! (I'm super jealous!)
His favorite toys are his Buzz Lightyear (which he got for his birthday), cars, and the piano. His favorite movie is Wreck it Ralph. We have watched this movie 100+ times. I can quote this whole movie for you start to finish. I used to like it, now I feel like if I have to listen to Ralph complain about being the bad guy one more time IM going to become the bad guy! Anyway...
He LOVES to be outside and is currently figuring out how to open and escape out the front door. He is extremely intrigued by dirt, rocks, mud....basically everything boys love. He loves to play "daredevil" with daddy and let daddy throw him around and toss him in the air (despite what you may be thinking, no this is not how he got his concussion), and he thinks driving our car is the coolest thing ever.
He loves his baby brother Sawyer and is always looking for him and when he finds him Maddox loves to give him hugs and kisses and share his toys and rock him in his carseat or his swing.
Bathtime is one of the favorite parts of the day...and he needs it! By the end of the day this boy is covered in dirt from head to toe!
He loves puppies and he likes to pull on cats tails. He thinks daddy's fish tanks are pretty awesome as well! He thinks the word "No" is hilarious, no matter how firm I say it (this is a current dilemma i'm working on) and he loves to play with kids his age. He gets so excited when he sees other little kids, i'm so convinced they should let him into nursery ;)
Anyway, I could go on and on and on and on about how amazing my little boy is. He has brought me so much joy and happiness and he melts my heart when he calls me "momma". We're so blessed to have this little boy in our home and we look forward to many many many more birthdays to celebrate with him!
Happy Birthday son! We love you!!!

Surviving this crazy thing called "Life"

I'm sure that as time goes on things will get easier. We will fall into a schedule and our life will finally have some consistency. Right now things are just crazy, but we are loving it. Having another baby is like going from having 1 kid to 10. The laundry somehow seemed to quadruple, even though I have two hands and two arms I still can't seem to help both kids at once, and both our boys are going through a little bit of a rough patch right now.
Thankfully I have a saving grace. This saving grace is the best thing to ever happen to me. He is my better half. He has grace under pressure. He has patience far beyond my own. He has a special connection with the boys and he works harder than any other man under 30 years old that I know!
This amazing person is my awesome husband. I have always loved him with all of my heart and I always will, but lately I could not be more thankful for him. He has worked so hard running around taking care of all 3 of us, taking finals (and getting A's in his classes! Woot woot!!) and working. This man doesn't get a second for himself to sit down and do anything for himself. He's always doing things for us, and guess what....HE NEVER COMPLAINS! Not once do I hear anything negative from him. This guy is awesome. Every day I feel luckier that I got such an amazing catch. I couldn't have asked for anyone better. So here it is. My mushy, mushy, lovey, lovey, post for the month <3

I did it! I did it! I did it! Yay!

I'm currently singing that little Dora the Explorer song in my head "I (we) did it! I did it! I did it! Yay!!!" because I am as happy as a bird with a french fry right now! I have survived the semester! I feel so amazing accomplished right now it's not even funny. Let me break this down for ya. Between January and April I...

• Worked part time (from home)
• Was a full time mommy to Maddox
• Was pregnant and was restricted from doing much of anything
• I took 11 credits/4 classes 
• Had a baby
• Was a full time mommy to both Maddox and Sawyer, while still working, and 2 weeks before finals!
• I survived!
• And I got all straight A's in each and every one of my classes!!!!!!!! (Can you tell I am just so stoked that I pulled off all A's?) 

Holy Hannah I feel good! Can you see why? Now it's time for me and my sweet husband and amazing boys to take the next 6 months before school starts up again and enjoy the perfect Idaho summer weather and make memories. 

The Family of Four!

I cant believe it! We are now a family of 4! I'm finally getting around to writing about our sweet baby boy Sawyer!
I had been having contractions for weeks and my Dr kept telling me "any day now". I either wanted something to happen or just have the contractions stop. I was getting so exhausted. Finally last Friday my contractions started getting closer together and by 9pm they were close enough for me to go to the hospital. Josh kept trying to have me go to the hospital, but I kept refusing. I think I was pretty terrified to have a second baby and I thought "As long as I don't go to the hospital our lives won't be changed forever". I was just so scared to finally be having a second baby. Also, I was only 37 weeks and would have been ok holding off one more week for the babes health and so I could get through a hard week at school. We weren't able to sleep and as the night dragged on my contractions kept getting worse. Finally at 2:30am Josh called our friends Mike and Lacey and they came over to stay with Maddox. Once Mike was here I knew I couldn't stall any longer and Josh finally dragged me out the door to the hospital. As soon as we got there the nurse admitted me and the fun began. The night seemed to pass so quickly and time was nothing. Labor was going really well and I actually felt like I was rocking labor this time around. I guess having a baby only 11 months ago left me pretty prepared for labor this time around. I didn't sleep at all through the night so I was running on over 30 hours of no sleep by the time he was born. My labor slowed for a while but then once it picked up again it was only an hour before we were holding our baby. Sawyer Matthew Wray was born at 1:01 pm weighing exactly 7 pounds and measuring 19.5 inches. He is perfect in every single way. We spent an extra day in the hospital because they were worried about his breathing, especially where he was born a little bit pre-term. We had a few scary experiences with him not breathing, especially the first day. The first night after he was born he stayed in our room until 2am when the nurse came in and she ended up taking him down to the NICU for the night to be evaluated. But we had him back by the next morning and after one or two more quick trips to the NICU his Dr finally felt good about his breathing and we were able to go home!
We feel so blessed to have little Sawyer in our family. This pregnancy has been an emotional roller coaster. For the first two trimesters I only had a 50/50 chance of giving birth to him. We heard the words "miscarriage" and "stillborn" more times than we would like to recall. I was on strict bed rest for weeks. So many tears were shed and prayers were said and we now have a perfect son here safe and sound. I can honestly testify that prayer works. I know for a fact that this baby is only here because of all the prayers that were said for him and me, and Im so thankful for everyone that prayed for us and helped us in our times of need. Our ward has been amazing and has done a ton to help us, and my mom has been a heaven sent. She has completely dropped her schedule multiple times to come up here and take care of us, and she never complains. We couldn't be more thankful for all the amazing people in our lives.
As soon as they put this baby on my chest and he cried for the first time I knew he was a miracle and I felt beyond blessed to be able to carry him and be his momma.
I love this perfect little boy and me and Josh are so blessed to have two amazing sons. We are now, proudly, a family of four!

Day 11

I am officially on day #11 of the early stages of labor....and I am tired. I wish I could call these braxton hicks contractions, but unfortunately they are all to consistent and painful! I just wish they would either go away or do something. I don't feel like I can sit like this for another 3-4 weeks!
I felt like I was getting through the first week or so pretty sane, now i'm starting to lose it. After 10 nights of 3 hours of sleep (if i'm lucky) I feel like a complete mental patient. You could tell me something and 5 minutes later ask me what you just told me, and I probably wouldn't be able to recall one word you said. Multiple times will I be looking for something and getting so frustrated because I can't find it, and I was holding it the whole time. Small things like that every day add up and make me feel like i'm totally losing it. I feel completely exhausted 2 hours after I wake up in the morning and I could honestly probably take 4-5 naps a day at this point haha. I'm in so much pain and so stiff that doing things like picking up the house or vacuuming are major chores for me. It's horrible. I feel like a fat lazy whale these days.
FORTUNATELY my Dr has told me that i'm allowed to start walking again! Hallelujah! For the past 3 months I have been restricted from going on walks, walking around the track, etc. But now i'm back baby! This is the only thing I really enjoy doing these days. Some days I want to go walking at the track 2 or 3 times in the same day. It gives me some energy that I desperately need, it gets me out of the house which is a huge bonus! (being cooped up in the house during the winter = no bueno). Maddox LOVES to go walking and he smiles and yells at all the runners and old people passing us up (yes, with my pregnant lady waddle old people pass us up). But I just love that it makes me feel good, it's the only thing that gives me that boost right now. So every day me, Josh and Maddox all pile in the car and drive up to the school and walk till we can't walk no more!
I feel like labor is getting progressively worse, but idk if that's just because it's been so long it's starting to just feel worse, or if i'm progressing towards active labor. We will find out sooner or later I guess ;)
So with all of this i'm still trying to get things ready for the baby, but I have NO energy. Seriously, my house could use a good scrubbing, but by the time I fill up the bucket with soap and water, pull out the mop, and get ready to rumble i'm completely exhausted. I am seriously considering hiring someone to come over for like 2 hours this week and just scrub my house from top to bottom. I can't find the energy to do it ( I know i'm so lazy) and when I do go into labor I don't want people in and out of our house taking care of Maddox or picking stuff up for us and thinking "Holy cow! Ever heard of a Swiffer, lady?!"
I'll debate it for the next day or two and decide if it's worth it. If I do it, it will just have to be some cleaning service or some student cleaning houses to get through college, there's no way I could hire someone I know to come over. I would be mortified (Our house really isn't THAT bad, but having someone you know clean your house...wouldn't you be embarrassed too?!)
Have you ever hired a cleaning lady or cleaning service? Was it worth it? Any tips?

Feeling Lazy

April 8th was the due date we were given, however for the last 2 weeks specifically i've been feeling more and more miserable. The baby has dropped down making it hard to walk, lean over, or do much of anything without being in pain. I've also been having awesome contractions that have been making me progress towards labor. And finally today after seeing how strong my contractions were, how progressed I was, and especially that this has been consistent for almost 2 weeks now, my Dr told me he doesn't think we're going to make it 2 more weeks without a baby BUT if I did make it that far and was still contracting he would help things along. Basically he feels terrible i've been in the early stages of labor for 2 weeks and I think he'll feel even worse letting me sit in the early stages of labor for a month (I love that a Dr can see how strong your contractions are and realize you're not just whining and complaining about being pregnant...but that you're really in pain!) So now the stressing begins.
I feel like I have procrastinated in a way. I thought we would be having a baby in April, so I haven't stressed about getting things done. Now I feel like I don't have enough time and i'm not prepared. I'm sitting here staring at piles of laundry waiting to be folded, I still need to pull out newborn clothes and get those washed and put away, I need to read a million books about how to survive with 2 kids under the age of 1, and I haven't even thought about a hospital bag. So today I just feel overwhelmed. There's so much to do and I have a fear of not having things done if I go into labor....but thinking of everything I have to do makes me want to take a nap. If anyone would love to come do my laundry and read me parenting books, be my guest :)

Long time, no blog!

It's been a while! I miss this place. I've visited a few times but by the time I click "new post" something else seems to come up. We are loving life right now though!
A few weeks ago I got really sick and couldn't eat or drink anything for over 24 hours. I finally went into the Dr and by that point I was so dehydrated that the babies heartbeat was racing and he sent me to the hospital right away. They tested me for influenza and it came out positive. Blech. As soon as they started me on an IV and Tamiflu they hooked me up to baby monitors to make sure the baby was doing ok, I started having contractions. They said it was caused by the dehydration and gave me a few shots of some fun stuff to help stop my contractions. After a few hours and 4 IV bags of fluids and some nausea medicine I was finally feeling a little bit better and I was able to get out after spending most of the day at the hospital. I can honestly say I have never felt that sick in my lifetime. It was the most horrific thing I went through. Holy. Cow. Then when I went in for my follow up last week (to make sure I was over the flu and the baby was still doing good) my Dr informed me this baby is looking like he's going to make his appearance early. He's already dropped and i'm already showing a few more signs that mean labor is coming soon. So now we're trying to get things ready. I still need to sort out and organize the boys clothes and clean out the closet and throw all of our junk away. I'm so tired of junk. Why do we have so much of it?!
We finally got carseats ordered, Maddox's new one came today and hopefully the new baby's will be here this week or at the least next week. We made one real purchase other than a carseat for this baby, and that was a bouncy chair. Surprisingly enough we didn't get a bouncy chair with Maddox. When he was a few months old my sister gave us one that she had in storage and it was a life saver. He LOVED that thing. Unfortunately he still loves it and he's terrorized it and the vibrations, sound, and lights don't work anymore. So we had to invest in a new one. We're keeping this one in the box until the new baby comes, then we will whip it out. I would really like to declutter our whole house before this baby comes, but I just don't know if I have the energy to do it. Honestly the past few days i'm at the point where I look at my house and i'm so overwhelmed by how much stuff we have and I have wanted to just call the dump and have them drop one of those dumpsters off in front of our house and come pick it up at the end of the day. I could throw out a LOT of stuff. Maybe i'll have to do spring cleaning once the baby comes and I can finally move again without falling over.
My little Maddox is growing up so fast! He got his first 2 teeth today, moved into a big boy carseat today, got his 3rd haircut last night, and he's been walking all over our house with his little walker (best investment EVER!) He melts my heart every day and he just seems to be getting cuter and cuter. I worry so much about having another baby because i'm scared that nothing could steal my heart like Maddox has, but I know for a fact that I will love this second baby just as much :) I just hope he survives having a big brother that may accidentally give him a few bonks and bruises. I really am terrified for this little ones survival once he gets here. Josh thinks it will just make him tough :)
As far as school goes...I'm half way through the semester and I have all A's in all 5 classes! Not even any A-'s so i'm feeling pretty good about that so far.
SO there's a recap of our past few weeks. Our lives are crazy right now with both me and Josh working, going to school, loving on our boy, and preparing for our new addition. It keeps us on our toes but we go to bed every night thankful for everything that we have!