Happy 8th Birthday Addyson

Addyson is 8 years old today! Has it really been 8 years since I gave birth to this crazy child of mine? I am so grateful for blogging because it gives me a great opportunity to document my kids childhood and our family history. Unfortunately Addyson and Ethan don't have as much documented about them when they were smaller so I wanted to take this opportunity to post some photos and stuff from when Addyson was small.

(2 weeks old)

Addyson was born September 20th, 2001 at 2:51 p.m in Portland Oregon. She weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. and was 19 1/2" long. She has always been determined to do things her way and that was just how she chose to come into the world, right side up. She was breech and was delivered by C-section. She was beautiful and so perfect.

(7 months)
It is strange to think back what life was like when you only had 1 child. Our world revolved around her. We were so happy to have her and enjoyed every milestone she made.

(1 year)

Addyson has always had a big, big personality and is full of energy. She has been making us laugh from the very beginning. She has always been so affectionate and loving to her family and friends.

(2 years)
The experience with your first child, I think is the most memorable because it is like nothing you have ever experienced before. We had no clue what we were doing, we were just learning along the way. We didn't exactly "plan" to have Addyson. We kept feeling proptings that we should get pregnant, however we were in no position financially to have a baby- not to mention we had only been married a few months. We shrugged off the feelings and said we needed to wait a couple of years. Well, the Lord had other plans and we found out we were pregnant 5 months after we were married. Somehow things just worked out for us! I know she was supposed to be ours and although things may have been easier if we would have waited, I am so grateful that she blessed our lives and the lives of her future siblings.

She is a great big sister who has a lot of love for her brother and sisters. We love you so much Addyson and are excited to watch you grow into a beautiful young woman. This is a big Birthday because she will be baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that she will be a great example to her siblings and to her friends.

Happy 8th Birthday!

Paige is potty trained!

Paige is a superstar! We have been encouraging her to go potty for a while now, and all she ever had to say was "NO", which she says to most things. I am not sure what happened but she suddenly had a desire to try and after about a week she was doing her thing on the toilet with very little effort from us. I have been spending a lot of time at home just lounging around taking care of the baby so it could not have been a more perfect time to let the girl just run loose in her undies- now I can't get her to put her clothes on to save my life! I am so excited to now only have 1 child in diapers. That is like an extra $30 back in my pocket every month....... oh, wait now that $ is going to Tatum's diapers(sigh). I can't believe how big she is getting:(

The First Day and Week of school

Woohoo, school has started! The kids have been counting down the days for school to start, it seems since the first day of summer, and while I have enjoyed our fun in the sun, I have been pretty excited as well. The day finally came and we were all thrilled. Since Tatum was so fresh out of the hospital and I didn't want to take her into a school full of kids and their germs Dave and I weren't able to go together to take them. Because it was Ethan's very first day of kindergarten I decided to let him pick who he wanted to take him, and it was no suprise when he picked his dad to take him to school (sniff, sniff). So, I helped them get their gear, gave them hugs and kisses and watched them walk out the door. Ethan's attitude about the first day of school was very different from Addyson's first day of kindergarten. He had no worries, wasn't nervous at all- I practically had to pry Addyson off of me she was so scared.

Ethan waiting out in front of the Kindergarten classrooms patiently waiting to go in.
His teacher's name is Ms. Hartung. She is a new kindergarten teacher this year and seems really sweet, she looks like she is 16, so far he really likes her.

Addyson's teacher is Mrs. Leach and she is a breath of fresh air from her teacher last year! I am so glad that she has a teacher that is not only good but actually likes kids and will treat her well.

The first week went off really well, they both got out of bed with no problems in the morning (we will see how long that will last with Ethan, the boy likes to sleep!), they were very well behaved in their classes, and they are loving it. Ethan has had a little trouble keeping track of his things- 3 out of the 4 days he brought lunch to school he misplaced his lunchbox, he completely lost one. I am sure he is just overwhelmed right now, I hope!:) I am excited to see how much they learn and grow this year. I can't believe I have 2 in school now- oh how the time flies!

Tatum's homecoming

Tatum has been home now for 11 days and we are loving every minute of it, even if it is at 2:00 in the morning. We thought that we had to wait until the 20th to bring her home but the nurses suprised me on the 19th(Dave & I's anniversary) when they told me that her antibiotics would be done that evening. I had to really convince the Dr. to let me take her home that night, he wanted me to wait until the following day to discharge her, but in the end he was happy to let me have my way. It worked out perfectly because Dave and I had already asked my mom to babysit the kids so we could go out for our anniversary, so after our date we went to the hospital and brought her home. She has been a really good baby thus far. I forget how much they sleep and how often they fill their diapers at this age- the diapers are piling up!

I am already starting to feel a little sad that this is the last time I will be experiencing this newborn stage! I don't doubt our decision to be done having kids, I am sure everyone experiences the same emotions with their last child regardless of how many kids they have. I am just trying to enjoy every minute because I know how quickly they change and grow. So what if the housework doesn't get done right?!

The kids have been so sweet with her. Ethan comes straight home from school, washes his hands, and asks to hold her, then Addy, then Paige of course. Addyson really likes playing the mom role. I kept having to get after her for the way she was holding Tatum because I wasn't confident she would have quick enough reflexes to catch her if she lost control of her head and Addy broke down crying and said, "I just really want to be a parent!" that made me laugh. Needless to say we have had to set some boundaries. She is one loved little baby.

And pretty dang cute too!

3 more days!

When Tatum was originally put into the special care nursery the neonatologist said that she would probably have to be there for 7 days of antibiotics so in my mind she was going to be coming today. I even verified it with one of the neonatologists and she told me I could bring her home Monday evening. The kids were excited, of course I was excited that the wait was finally over. Then, on Sunday the main neonatologist called me and broke the news that she actually had to stay 10 days because of the strain of bacteria that she tested positive for. My heart sank and I just cried and cried and cried! Of course I want her to get better and I want to make sure that the antibiotics kill every last bit of it but I was so disappointed! So, I decided to have a little fun when I went up to the hospital Monday evening. I brought a bunch of clothes and blankets and bows and my mom and I played a little dress up, she didn't like it too much but it made me feel better.

No more generic white onesies, she is wearing pink every day now!
This is the outfit I was going to bring her home in but since I will likely be bringing her home around 9pm I will probably just put her in some PJ's.

I wanted to give the nurses something to say thank you. I bought the cookies and goodies on Saturday and I was afraid that if I didn't give them to the nurses now I might eat it all.

The last couple of days I have felt comforted like I can definitely do this for 3 more days, I am grateful for that! I have really struggled with the fact that I feel as though I haven't been able to bond with Tatum like I have my other children when they were first born, it has made me really sad. The nurses have been great in the evenings giving me a private room to nurse and spend time with her which has been such a blessing because it allows me to bond with her a lot more.
I hope the next 3 days fly by!

Update on Tatum

Tatum has been in the NICU for 5 days now and she has gotten so much better! Each day that I visit her she is improving more and more. They have taken her off of oxygen and she is breathing great on her own. She also doesn't have to have that nasty feeding tube anymore, she is bottle feeding and today we had quite a bit of success with breastfeeding- I was so happy! She also doesn't need to be under the warmer anymore, her body temperature has been perfectly normal so she gets to have a regular bassinet. Of course she is still hooked up to all of the leads monitoring her heart, pulse ox, and respirations and then her IV. Poor thing, I think everyday that I am there she has a new IV site. Her blood culture did come back positive, so she did sepsis which is scary! The really scary part is that it came back positive for Group B Strep which is a bacteria that the mom carries and is passed to baby during labor. It can cause pneumonia(which is likely what Tatum had) or even menigitis and can be fatal to newborns if not caught and treated quickly. The wierd thing is that I was tested for GBS 4 days before I delivered and it was negative so we never would have known. I cannot begin to describe how grateful I am to the nursery nurse who went with her gut and had Tatum checked out because she could have gotten really sick!

Tatum her 2nd night in the NICU.
Dave and I visiting her.

This is Tatum last night, she looks so much better!

I can't wait to bring her home!

Meet baby Tatum Audrey Lee!

So some of you may know that I was pretty anxious to have this baby ASAP! I was having a lot of back and hip pain, I was exhausted, and super emotional. I was really hoping to have her over the weekend and lucky me, it did happen. It was funny because my good friend Aprille had her baby 4 weeks early on Friday after her water broke in the middle of the night. I went to visit her in the hospital on Saturday and we were talking about how uncommon it is for a women's water to break, only 15%! Then, around 4:30 a.m. I felt a pop and what do you know my water broke too! We called my mom and headed to the hospital. The problem was that I wasn't in active labor and once your water breaks you only have about 16-24 hours to deliver, I don't like C-sections- done that don't want to do it again. Because I have had a C-section before, I cannot be induced so after sitting in the hospital for hours with no progress I was stressing. Fortunately, after trying some "untraditional" methods it started to move a long slowly. I got my epidural and waited some more, a lot more comfortably though- LOVE epidurals! After about 12 hours the Dr. decided that she wanted to try to move things a long a little quicker and gave me a very small amount of pitocin. It did the trick, I went from a 5 to complete in 45 minutes and she came out in 2 pushes! Did I mention I love epidurals?! She was born at

4:24 p.m. on Sunday, August 9th.

Tatum Audrey Lee all covered in goo.
She weighed 6lbs. 12oz. and 19 3/4 inces long.

She has a head full of dark thick hair, very different from her sister Paige.

The kids couldn't wait to meet their new little sister. My mom was asleep on our couch when Ethan woke up in the morning and saw her, he got very excited and ran up to tell Addy and Paige that Grandma was downstairs and mom and dad were gone- he knew what that meant! When they came to the hospital they couldn't hold her enough and Ethan couldn't stop kissing her. I might have a little bit too much help when I get home.

Later that night we noticed she wasn't acting right, she was extremely cold, grunting and crying a lot, and she refused to eat- I was worried. They decided to put her in the special care unit of the nursery and take blood, do a chest x-ray, put her under heated lamps, and give her some oxygen. Unfortunately what it looks like is an infection in her lungs. She is having trouble breathing and her lab work showed an infection so she will likely have to stay in the hospital for a week while they give her a full course of antibiotics. They are feeding her through a feeding tube, she is getting IV antibiotics and is hooked up to all kinds of probes- SAD!! It will be strange going home with no baby, the kids will be disappointed but we hope she just gets better! We are very blessed!

Our summer

What have we been up to all summer? Pretty much a whole lotta this!

I have been a slacker about blogging this summer, actually I haven't really taken any pictures so I figured I should get on the ball and try to document a little of the Lee summer of '09. It has been a HOT HOT summer. I read that the month of June 15th to July 14 has been the hottest 30 days on record since 1989, then as you get closer to August it is always really hot! Of course it would be the summer that I am pregnant. What else do you do when the weather is so hot, swimming swimming and more swimming.
Luckily my kids love to swim and they really never get sick of it.

I also love that they got their moms skin and can bake in the sun for hours without burning. They have some pretty great tans, even Paige with her white hair- I love it!

I just continue to get bigger and bigger, but at least I have an excuse right?!

We did have a week last week where it rained a lot so swimming was out. It was tough week to get creative and find things to keep the kids entertained. The temperatures were a little cooler so I decided to take the kids to one of their favorite parks.

Addyson has been so great with Paige this summer. She has been super helpful and I can tell she just loves being able to play with Paige and do what big sisters do.

Enjoying our lunch outside.




We also went to visit my sister-in-law and nephew in Arlington last week and we took the kids to this great new place by her called Doogoland. My kids love places like this with the grocery store, Dr.'s office, play house etc. Addyson has been asking me to take her somewhere like this for a while so it worked out perfectly they loved it!

Addy made a new friend.

Ethan rolling around on his scooter.

Paige doing some shopping.



It has been a good summer. I have been soooo tired but we have been having a lot of fun together and with friends. With that being said, I am starting to count down the days until school starts and we can get back on a schedule and I can have more time to get things done without worrying about how to entertain my kids 24/7. And Paige has been quite sleep deprived because her nap schedule is pretty much non existant- I want nap time back!

A pampers party

Last weekend, Kelly, one of my awesome coworkers from the YMCA took it upon herself to throw me a pampers party at one of my favorite places- Panera! She put together these beautiful flowers(I love hydrangeas), and got a yummy brown and pink cake for all of us to enjoy.

She also made this quilt, which I absolutely love! Kelly you have great taste and your sewing skills are not too shabby either!

Most of the girls who came to shower me diapers, which BTW I am so so grateful for! Considering I haven't been able to convince Paige that she can be a big girl now and wear big girl panties, it sucks to buy diapers for 2- I am glad I don't have to spend my money on diapers for a little while.

A baby shower for the girls

A couple of weekends ago my good friend Aprille and I were thrown a babyshower/girls night by our amazing friend Shaunna who came all the way up from Houston and as always it was tons of fun! We started the night with dinner at Buca di Beppo and then we headed back to our hotel room where we opened gifts, ate junk food, and swam in the pool. 10 of us stayed the night in our tiny hotel room and talked and laughed until ohhhh 5:00 in the morning!!! Then we were up by 9:00 for our made to order breakfast, and off for a day of shopping and sushi. It only took me 3 days to recover from our weekend but it was well worth it. Thanks Shaunna for all of your party planning and thanks to all the girls for leaving your husbands and kids to come and party with us and for all of the fun girly baby gifts! I really do have THE BEST group of friends!

Most of us at Buca di Beppo, I am hiding behind the pope.

Yummy, yummy food!

Shaunna got us a cake and this about the time that things started to get a little silly!

Getting cozy for our almost all nighter!

Aprille and I ready for our day of shopping.

Baptisms, Baby, and Being Busy!

I have 3 older brothers and all 4 of us got married within a year & 1/2 of each other(which probably cost my parents a fortune), and we had our first child in the same year 2001. So, this year is a big year for all of us, as our first child is being baptized. My nephew Jacob, who lives in Arlington, TX was the first. He was baptized on May 2nd and it was a special day and really great for Addyson to watch her cousin take an important step in making covenants with his Father in heaven. She was excited to participate in the program and sing with her cousins from Tennessee, it was a great weekend. We are so proud of you Jacob.

The next to be baptized was my niece Kendyl. We took a road trip to Nashville,Tennesse, which was our first road trip in a while since we were used to flying everywhere while Dave worked for American. It was a little rough getting out there but we made it and it was well worth the 10 hour drive.
Kendyl was baptized on May 30th. Congrats Kendyl and we are so proud of you too!
Addyson is a little bummed that she doesn't get to be one of the first but I am glad that it is something that she can be excited about and prepare for as much as possible. I can't believe she is turning 8 this year.

We love visiting Tennessee! It is always so much fun seeing my brother Ken and his wife Carrie and their 4 girls. Our kids get a long so well that is always makes for a really relaxing time because the kids just disappear and couldn't be happier. We also love it because it is so pretty out there. One of the kids favorite things to do is walking down to the creek by their house and catching tadpoles, minnows, and crayfish. I love that my kids enjoy the outdoors so much, I know I always did and still do.

My kids really are so lucky to have so many cousins their age and so close in proximity. When I was a kid I only saw my cousins once a year so we weren't close, especially as we got older but my brothers and I are all so close and supportive of one another that I know that the kids will be great friends forever.
On our way out to Tennessee I saw this butterfly or moth, Addyson educated me on the difference, near our hotel room in Arkansas. I have never seen one so huge, I had to take a picture.

This is Addyson's hand next to it.

So, since it has been a while since I have made a blog post I thought that I would journal about the progress of baby Lee and the everyday happeninings here at the Lee household.

Um, I am definitely done having children! I don't really remember feeling this way in any of my past pregnancies, the last month I always feel pretty miserable but this whole pregnancy has been hard for me. I have been an emotional wreck, eating like a cow, soooo tired, and I am already feeling the aches and pains a lot more than I remember when I am only 29 weeks. I have tried to scale back my schedule as much as I can to help me cope but I have an incredible amount of anxiety and I am sooooo in nesting mode! I stopped teaching my classes at the gyms, even though I could really use the exercise. I have been picking up some extra shifts at the hospital when I can because I am switching around rooms, redecorating, buying extra furniture, and trying to organize organize organize in time for the baby so I have to make some extra money to pay for it all. I put Addyson and Paige in a room together and I painted their room last week and I pretty much decided that Dave will be painting the baby's room because I was so sore the next day that I could harldy walk, ugh what the heck! I love how the girls room turned out, once all of my projects are completed I will post pics.

Dave has been really busy as well. He has picked up several new clients so he spends a lot of time in the evenings doing bookkeeping. Seminary is over, so he has a little extra time to devote to other things. He has a whole slew of projects lined up for him, I kind of feel bad for the guy but he owes me if you know what I mean:) Our side fence that adjoins with our neighbors fell down a couple of months ago and Dave actually really likes to build things and work with his hands so he volunteered the labor if the neighbors would pay for materials. Every weekend, or the ones that haven't been raining, he has been out there working on the fence and it is almost done. It is great for the kids to get out there with him and watch and help, they really love it! His next project is our garage, which needs a lot of help, priming and painting baby's room, lots of repairs around the house, etc.- he has a list:) Oh, and the one he is least happy about is his date with the urologist for the ole' snip snip. Is that TMI? He might not be happy that I just put that out there, but I am super grateful that he is willing to have the Dr. mess with his goods in the name of my sanity. Love you Dave!!

HB Ethan!

Ethan turned the big 5 on May 14th, and I am just now getting around to blogging about it. His Birthday was on a Thursday so we kept it pretty low-key. My mom treated him to a Birthday lunch at McD's and later that night Dave came home from work early to treat him to a Birthday dinner, but Ethan wasn't interested- which sucks for me cause that means I have to make dinner! Whatever the Birthday boy wants the Birthday boy gets right?! Then we had some cake and opened his present and cards that came in the mail.

On Saturday we had his official Birthday party with his friends and cousins. I had decided that my kids were only going to get a big party every other year and that since Ethan had a big Birthday party last year that we would just do something as a family. However, I started to feel a little guilty because every single year for Addyson's birthday she has always gotten a big party and Ethan has only had 1. So, I decided to go ahead and do it but keep it really simple. We bought a big play structure for the back yard that the kids spend all of their time on so I thought I would just invite some kids over, have them play outside, throw some water balloons, have cake and ice cream, open presents and call it a party. Well, it just h-a-d to rain and ruin my plans so I had to scramble at the last minute and come up with some last minute games and activities inside, so needless to say the party was not as stress free as I had hoped but Ethan was happy so it was worth it.

He is soooo into Pokemon right now, so of course he wanted a Pokemon party
Since my water balloon fight idea didn't work out so well, I decided to have the kids have a "snowball" fight inside with socks. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun, only one kid got a bloody nose- oops!

Then we did the whole doughnut on a line game but instead of having doughnuts all over in my house I substituted fruit roll-ups, not quite as fun but it still worked out great.

I kept the cake very simple, I just don't have the motivation to go all out on a cake right now. I just made a triple layer yellow cake with white chocolate raspberry creamcheese filling and buttercream on the outside then I just stuck some some Pokemon figurines on top and called it good.

The moment the party started Ethan kept asking me when we were going to open presents. We played the first game and he asked then we played the second game and he made it very clear that that was going to be the last game because he wanted to open presents.

Ethan we are so blessed to have you in our home. You are such a good boy who is so sweet to your sisters and your parents. You are always willing to do anything that we ask you(most of the time). Now that you are 5 you are super excited about all of the new things that you get to experience i.e. school, YMCA activities, and soccer. I know that you will do awesome because you always try your best. We love you and hope you had a Happy Birthday!

So, I am finally getting around to blogging Paige's birthday party. We just had a small family party on the Sunday before she turned 2. She is obsessed with Dora the Explorer so we went to the party store and got Dora plates and cups. The whole week leading up to her party she kept telling everyone that she was 2 and she was having a Dora Birthday part- so cute!

She was very excited to blow out her candles!
Dave suggested we have an ice cream cake, and since I love ice cream cake I thought it was a great idea! Too bad the thing melted like crazy as soon as I took it out of the freezer, it was GOOOOD though! I made my first attempt at making a royal icing plaque and made a Dora, it turned out alright except her arm fell off and there were tiny spots where the green whipped cream was coming through her nose but Paige loved it and that is all that matters.

Enjoying her cake!

She is serious about her ice cream!