Memorial Day Weekend 2011

This weekend we spent some time with my family. On Saturday my brother Corey ran in the Houston mud run and did great, he was way ahead of the crowd. It was so fun to watch. The kids came home and created their own obstacle courses. I totally am going to do the next one.

Here he is in one of the first obstacles.

Way to get over the wall!

We hung out with my parents at their home afterward and enjoyed each others company. On Monday we spent Memorial Day with my family as well. First we went to a duck pond and fed the ducks and then had a picnic at the park. Man it was hot! Afterward we had water fun and we barbequed! It is nice to have some family close to spend the holidays with and we sure enjoy hanging out at grandmas house!

We found a turtle crossing the street at the park!

Cavin and daddy feeding the ducks...they both were a little scared because Cavin got snapped at last time.

Here is Ella watching and deciding what to do.

This is how Channing spends most of her time.

Our balancing ballerina girl!

Channing was such a good girl and just enjoyed relaxing!

Here is fun in the water!

We sure love our cousins and are so sad they are moving away!

One Month Old!

I can't believe a whole month has gone by since Channing was born. She has been an angel baby, and I am so grateful. I have healed so fast with her regarding delivery and such, but I got bronchitis right after I had her and it is still lingering on, so that is frustrating. She is a sweet little girl though and she pretty much just sleeps. She only wakes up once a night and I am so thankful for that. Her brother and sister absolutely love her, and she really makes me grateful that we get to have 3 beautiful kids in our family.

She has a perma- grump as we call it. Her eyebrows always make her look like she is making a grumpy face :)

She seriously is a mini Ragnar. I think if Ragnar were a girl this would be his baby picture! So crazy how that happens!

Her loving brother and sister....who fight over holding her...ALL THE TIME.

Oh man they are silly!

I had to put in a picture of Ella.


I hope that Channing is as good of friends with Ella and Cavin as they are with each other. They love to play together. This picture of them sharing a seat totally describes their relationship. I hope they always enjoy each other!

Growing up so fast!

Well it's official....Ella has turned the dreaded age of 5!!! I was so not looking forward to her turning five. I am so sad that she is now old enough to go to Kindergarten and will be starting me on a forever schedule starting in August. Ella however is so excited for school and about being old enough to use all the fingers on one hand when you tell people your age. She wanted to do a bunny party this year. I was all about that idea as I knew Easter would be just a couple weeks before her birthday and there would be plenty of bunny supplies to help us celebrate. So, Grandma, Natalie, Uncle Corey, Aunt Stephani, John, and Madi came to our house to celebrate. We had chick-fil-a and cake and ice-cream and presents. It's great that at this age, it still doesn't take much to excite them.

Here is my big girl!

My attempted bunny cake!

Dinner fun!

Cake time!

She did pretty good blowing out the candles!

We are so glad we have been able to spend 5 wonderful years with our little girl and look forward to many more birthdays.

The week after her birthday, she had her preschool graduation. She has spent the last year in a Joy School program called "Little Lady Bugs" She has 3 other girls in her class. The four of us mothers would just swap houses and teaching each Tuesday/Thursday and do their preschool. Ella loved every minute of it. As for me...although they were a great group of girls, I am glad it's over. Teaching for some reason would stress me out! I am glad she had a good experience and she is so ready for kindergarten!

Here are the girls Larkin (who wasn't too keen on being photographed that day), Ella, Emily, and Seneca

Her "diploma"

Congrats little girls! We are so glad we got to spend the year teaching you!

Introducing......

CHANNING AVA HARTZHEIM:
Born, April 23, 2011 @ 12:40 p.m.
8 lbs 6 ozs., 19.5 inches long

We are so glad our little girl is here. I wanted to share about our experience of when her birthday began and how she arrived, mostly for my own records, but for those of you who are interested as well.....
On Friday, April 22, 2011 my water broke around 9:30 p.m. As with Ella my water only ever just trickles out, so I called my mom and figured I had plenty of time until she got here to go into the hospital. So as we waited we called over a friend Ryan Cotten to help Ragnar assist in giving me a blessing to make sure things would go smoothly during my delivery. The kids were obviously asleep and when my mom arrived, we left and got to the hospital around 11:30 p.m. I did the paperwork and they sent me to a waiting room area to make sure I was truly in labor since my contractions had not begun. I told her my water broke, she checked me and I was dialted to a 3 and she said that she still felt the sack and wasn't sure that my water had indeed broken. I explained how I knew for sure it had broken because it happened the same way it did with Ella and my body doesn't break the water completely. Anyway, needless to say in the middle of the night she wouldn't call the doctor, she just made me wait for a couple hours to see if anymore amnionic fluid would come out so she could "proove" that my water had indeed broken. Anyway, so she was about to send me home when I insisted saying, my water did indeed break, Ragnar and I both had seen it happen and I was not comfortable going home. So...she called the dr. and I had to walk around the hospital to see if they could collect a "sample" to test to make sure my water had broken. At this point I was so frustrated because she totally was looking at me like I was crazy. On my third kid I think I know how my body works, but I did as I was told and walked around for about 30 minutes when I sat down with Ragnar and we decided whether I should just give in and go home and come back in the morning. We then sat here:

This is the area we decided to pray to see what we should do. Thankfully there was no one around in the middle of the night. Anyway, we said a prayer that somehow the rest of the water would break, that they would admit me and we could get going on getting Channing here. Anyway, Ragnar said a short prayer and literally we got up feeling defeated and like 30 seconds later more of my water broke...enough that they had a sample and I was admitted at 2:30 a.m. I was so grateful for the quick answer to such a simple prayer. Unfortunately I had the same nurse until 7:00 a.m. shift change and she swore she no longer felt the sack and so I said then why am I still having water trickle out? Anyway, big mess, but no contractions because indeed when the next nurse came in, my sack was not completely broken, so she broke it, put me on pitocin and then the contractions began. I got the epidural and waited. After all three children you would think I would get my own doctor to deliver one of my kids, but of course it was the weekend and so I had the on call Dr. Boyd who I like as well. Anyway, I was stuck at an 8 for a while and they were not very busy at the hospital but they were not coming in very regularly to check me. They just kept asking if I had felt pressure....I was like lady....I can't feel anything! Anyway I had been nauseous during labor and the nurse said she would come back and check me in just a minute. So...I had to vomit again and as I was leaning over to throw up and I accidentally just pushed Channing out myself. I was throwing up so I couldn't say much, but I had her head in my hand and I was freaking out thinking I killed her. Thankfully the nurse really did come back in...saw that I was panicked. Opened my blanket and there on the bed was my baby. The doctor ran in and without gloves had me push the last part of her body out. She came right out on the bed and it was the weirdest feeling. I kept saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" because I hadn't meant to push her out when no one was ready and I wasn't sure what was going on. Thankfully she was fine, I was enough over on the bed that she hadn't fallen on the floor and she cried right away and she was perfect. The nurse just said...it looks like a red head! Ahhh! I wasn't ready for that news. She is mostly blond but it has a strawberry tone to it. She weighed 8 lbs 6 ozs and was 9 days early. I am glad she didn't make it any longer or she would have been huge! Anyway...that is the VERY long version of what went on, but there you get an idea of how labor went. As with all of my kids it only really takes one push and they are here, so I am so grateful! I wonder if I could contest whether or not I should have to pay the Dr. for delivering me since I delivered my own baby! We will see :)

Here she is!

Our first family photo!

Daddy and his look a like daughter!

Cavin absolutely loves her

Silly hats :)

After not sleeping all night, I was so glad she FINALLY was here!

First picture with Grandpa Speers

First picture with Grandma Speers

YAY! We got to go home. Since it was Easter weekend I had to use the on call pediatrician too and she wouldn't release Channing until 48 hours, so I was SOOOO ready on Monday morning to leave!

Channing's proud sister, Ella

Here she is now...one week old! She is a great baby! Only wakes up once a night and is always happy. I hope she isn't teasing us and that she will stay an angel baby! As for me, I feel pretty good. Like I always say...I much prefer my children on the outside, not the inside and am so grateful not to be pregnant anymore!

Cavin is Three!

So apparently Ragnar has already mentioned that Cavin is three and that he is wonderful, but I wanted to add a few pictures, even though my mom took most of them with her camera and none of ours worked well.

Here he is birthday morning....ready to start his special day.

Our birthday tradition of donuts for breakfast! Yum!

We had a relaxing day. Ella went to preschool and so Cavin and I came home and he wanted to make blue cupcakes and paint, so we did and then we went to McDonalds for our lunch date. He had fun playing in the play place. Then that night we had my mom, dad, sister Natalie, and my brother Corey's family over for pizza and cake.

Here are the cousins, but like I said the pictures are not great. He was excited to play games with his cousins, and we are so glad to have some family close. Thanks for all the birthday wishes for our sweet boy! I can't believe he is three! He is growing so fast :(

Happy Birthday Cavin!!!

Today marks 3 years that our little Cavin has joined us. It has been incredibly fun to watch him grow, learn and be with him over this time. He has such a fun personality that makes it impossible not to smile when he is around. His smile and actions just show what a nice child he is. He inherited his mother's concern for others and is always looking out for the well-being of those around him. He is quick to forgive and quick to hug if he knows he hurt someone's feeling. His ability to share shows his love towards his sister and the others around him. He always stands patiently at my side of the bed until I wake up and even if he has to wait, he smiles and just lets us know that he's awake and then he wants to just cuddle in bed and rub mommy's tummy.
Life without Cavin would be life without oxygen. We love you Cavin and hope that your 4th year is just as exciting and fun as your 3rd.
P.S. Lisa has all the pictures at home and I am sure we will post something after we celebrate with the extended family tonight!

Easter Egg-Stravaganza

Each year our community does a Spring Festival and they have an Easter Egg hunt. I was excited that we were here this year and the kids could attend. They loved it. They had a petting zoo, games, crafts, and of course and Easter Egg Hunt. It may sound silly, but I really enjoy going with them.

They said their favorite part was the petting zoo. They loved the bunnies and there was even a kangaroo.

They weren't too smelly :)

There were a lot of people there, and they separated the hunts into age groups. Each was over in like 1 minute.


Here are my two little bunnies! We look forward to Easter, and if we are lucky we will have 3 little bunnies by then :)