Merry Christmas...

I didn't do Christmas cards this year so this post is my slacker back-up plan. I do hope that this time of year finds you all well. We sure have had a very eventful year and as it comes to an end we are very grateful for the many blessings we have enjoyed.

We are excited to start a new year and see what new adventures await us. On the agenda so far-

First and foremost Nate graduates med school!!!!!!!!

We will be going on a celebration vacation (hopefully a cruise). But I will take anything relaxing and in a warm location.

Nate will start his residency in Orthopedics.

We hopefully will be buying our first house.

I am grateful for this time of year and the opportunity I have had to reflect upon the life of Christ. This last year definitely provided many faith testing experiences, but through it all I have learned much about prayer and my relationship with my Savior has become much closer. I am very grateful for His love and patience he has shown me. I have needed him and know that he is ALWAYS there for me when I am willing to turn to him. Again I just have to say that my little family has truly been blessed and we have lots to be grateful for this holiday season.

Here is my little family that I love so much...

We went to the lights at Temple Square last weekend. We thought Cambri was going to love it since she gets excited about any kind of Christmas light. But instead Cambri decided to be her crazy 2 year old self and showed zero emotion the whole time we were there. The girl keeps me guessing and has proved that I have yet to figure out the mind of a two year old.

Christmas has been very fun this year. Cambri isn't a huge fan of the big man in the red suit but she likes the idea that he will be bringing her presents. Everyday she comes up with a new toy she wants and says, "Santa bring me strawberry shortcake/dora/thomas the train, etc. Is that a good idea?" Nate and I had a blast buying presents for her and had to hold back from buying every toy in the store. I think we might be more excited about Christmas morning than she is.

Last night after putting Cambri in bed Nate and I left the kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa Rencher and headed to the gym to play a little game of Horse (which I beat him 3-0) and sit in the hot tub. When we came home we found Cambri sitting by the Christmas tree playing with the presents. She had climbed out of bed and made her way downstairs without being heard. Luckily she only opened the present she is giving to Sadie and was playing with a Sponge Bob box that wasn't wrapped. She had also peed on the floor. The poor girl had the guiltiest look on her face when Nate found her. She just looked at him with wide eyes and waved. It is hard to get mad when she is just so darn cute.

Here is Cambri opening her present from Grandma Tucker and Papa. She was VERY excited to get dress up clothes. She is as girly as they come and I love it! We played dress up the rest of the night.

Even baby Sadie got to be a part of it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all and to all a good night!

A few of my favorite things...

This blog post is pretty much me just wasting time...:)

I swear by this stuff. It has saved so many items of clothing at our house. I truly could be the next spokes person.

Nate and I joined the Apple here in Idaho Falls. It has been so much fun working out together. We are taking it rather slow since both of us are out of shape. And both of us walked around looking funny since we were so sore after the first day. As part of the introductory to the gym we received 2 free pilates classes on the reformer. It was new for both of us so we just laughed at eachother as we tried to do the exercises. I have to say I loved the class and wish it didn't cost an extra $99/month. I am loving the gym, but even more I am loving the hour each day Nate and I have to spend together.

I am addicted to this stuff. The strawberry dragonfruit is my favorite.

Truly the only lotion that has even done anything for my dry skin. I love it. My hands have been so dry they snag on everything. Gross I know. This stuff makes them soft and silky. You have to try it.

What's not to love about this little bundle of joy.

And how can you not love this!

And this!

And this! Can you tell she did NOT want to go play in the snow.

I love my girls. Even if both of them end up in bed with us on a regular basis:).

Home Sweet Home...

I just ordered Sadie's birth announcements so I hope to be getting them to fam and friends soon. She is so much bigger than this pic now. Wish they didn't grow up so fast! She is now about 10 1/2 pounds. I guess I should just be grateful she didn't come out this big. I do love that she is putting on some chunk. This little girl really is a great baby. She has her grumpy moments before going to bed but is perfect all day. I am a lucky momma!

We finally made it home to Idaho. We did the drive in 4 days so that we never had to drive more than 9 hours, but those 9 hour days were long. I hope we don't have to get in the car for awhile. But I can't complain too much cause it is so great to be with family. Cams is loving all the extra space to run around, and she loves the toy room right outside our bedroom. And little Sadie loves that there is someone to always hold her. She is a little cuddle bug.

Life really is perfect right now. Nate has 4 weeks of vacation so we get to play play play. On the agenda for today is...buy snow clothes for Cam and make Christmas cookies, oh and exercise. Nate and I are on a mission to get back in shape. With babysitters all around we have no excuses. And I don't fit into any of my pants and I don't want to buy a bunch of clothes that I hope I don't fit into for very long. I could ramble about this forever but I won't bore you with my sob story. Of course the to-do list should consist of stuff like unpacking and cleaning, but that can wait for another day right?

The Latest...

I am not very good at this blogging thing anymore. I use to be able to blame it on Nate having the computer but he has been home for the last 3 weeks and I am just barely getting a post done. I will try to be better but life is going to get crazy again for the next month, so I make no promises.

Our newest adventure will begin this Friday when we pack our stuff in a storage unit and make our trek across the country to move in with Nate's parents in Idaho Falls for a few months. For the last bit of Nate's schooling he has the freedom to do his rotations wherever he wants so we chose to spend some time closer to home where we can enjoy family and friends. Since we will most likely end up in Ohio for residency for the next 5 years it will be nice to live close to family for a short time.

Since we will be in the Idaho/Utah area til the end of May I hope to be seeing many long lost friends:) I am looking forward to some possible GNOs. I need to build up some girl time before we move to a far away place where I have no friends.

Just so this isn't a pictureless post, here are some recent photos of the girls-

Our little Sadie is quite possibly the smiliest baby in the world. This picture makes me happy.

Just enjoying some sister time.

This is Cam's first time holding Sadie unassisted. A little scary since most pictures looked like this one below-When she pulls this face you never know what to expect from her.

Hope to be seeing many of you soon!!!

Identity Crisis...

Our little bunny is almost a month old. Crazy how time flies when you are not pregnant:). Since she is almost a month old we decided the appropriate way to celebrate was to change her name of course. We have been calling her Hadley but it just hasn't felt right to me. I found myself hesitant to call her by her name and it didn't sound right when others said it. I brought it up to Nate and he too wasn't sold on the name Hadley. It isn't that we don't like it, more that it just didn't fit our little baby. Pretty much the little one has been referred to as baby sister or bunny, but now she has a name that I hope is the real deal...

Here is our little Sadie baby- I wanted to use this name when we were figuring out Cambri's name, but Nate didn't like it. Luckily he likes it this time around cause I still love it. It will take awhile to get use to her new name, but I think it fits her perfectly.

Here are a few more pictures of what has been going on around here.

Cam loves being a big sis. She especially loves to give Sadie lots of love. She is such a great helper with the bink which is what she is doing in this picture. She does sometimes find it entertaining to either pull the bink out or stick her finger in as far as possible. Luckily Sadie is usually a good sport.

Halloween this year was fun. I think we went trick-or-treating 4 different times. Cams loved it! I love that she calls it pick-or-treat.

And yes, I should have known better than to give her the whole bag of pretzel goldfish. And I should have known better than to try to take a picture. She hates getting her picture taken so when she saw the camera she started throwing the fish everywhere.

Nate will be home for good this weekend. We are so so so excited!!! We survived our long 4 month separation. I hope to never ever do anything like it again.

Baby Hadley

We are loving having this baby girl in our home.

She has a Name!...

We have had a hard time making up our minds about naming this precious baby, but I think we have finally come to a decision.

Meet our little Hadley Caprice-

She looks so small when being held by her daddy.

I love her little lips.

So do they look like sisters?

Hadley


Cambri

I think they look like twins. At least in these pictures they do.

Our Newest Addition!!!

This is rather lengthy. For those who don't care about the details you can skip down to the pictures.

Our precious baby girl made her debut at 9:04am today. She weighed in at 7 lbs 1 oz. and is 20 inches long. She is healthy as can be and has a great set of lungs on her. She also came with a nice head of dark hair!!! Lets hope it doesn't all fall out. She truly is perfect and we are so happy she is here.

Timing couldn't have been more perfect. Nate is still in the middle of doing all his crazy orthopedic rotations. He has been in Cleveland just an hour and 15 minutes away for the last month, but starts a new one in Columbus (2 hours) away on Monday. Even though he is only an hour away he still isn't able to come home at night so we only see him on the weekends when he isn't on call. I wanted so badly to have this baby in time to take her home for the weekend so we could spend some family time together. To add some stress to the situation Nate's car broke down Sunday morning on his way to work. I had to go pick him up and take him the rest of the way to the hospital and wait for him to round on his patients before we called AAA to come tow our car back to Sandusky. Since Nate has to have a car for work I was left without transportation for 4 days. Since we are 30 minutes from the hospital this was a cause for concern in the case I went into labor and Nate couldn't make it back in time to get me. Because of this I had decided maybe it was best to be induced Monday the 4th so that we could have a little control over the situation. After my appointment that morning I was scheduled to go in to the hospital that night at 8:30pm. I had a slight breakdown as the reality hit me that I was having a baby that day and my days of one-on-one time with Cambri would be coming to an end. Once I had my moment of tears I decided I was ready and okay with my decision. That was until my induction was canceled due to an understaffed hospital. I was then rescheduled for the following evening...that fell through and I was pushed til Friday morning at 7am. Honestly I didn't want to be induced at all but it was more important to me to have this baby in time to have her home for the weekend. With Nate being away from us for the last 3 months I just wanted some family time. So the thought of waiting until Friday morning sent me into another breakdown. If this was the case we wouldn't get to go home until Sunday morning at the earliest.

Long story short...prayers were answered and baby came all on her own when my water broke at 2:30am today (Thursday, just one day past my due date. Better than the 4 days I went over with Cam).

I called Nate so he could start making the trek back from Cleveland to pick me up so we could make the trip to the hospital together. Contractions hadn't started yet so I took a shower and cleaned up a few dirty dishes while I waited for him.

We got to the hospital around 4 or 4:30am. At this point the contractions were getting more painful but I was still okay. My labor with Cams was 17 hours from the time my water broke so I was expecting a long day. Fortunately things couldn't have gone smoother or more perfectly. By 6:15am I was ready for the drugs. I had a few contractions that pretty much made me lose control and I knew at that point I wasn't going to go natural. I am not tough enough and honestly I am okay with that. I love me some good drugs that is for sure. It also didn't help that I was barfing like crazy. Nate was amazing at coaching me but I know he was glad I chose to get the drugs.

I got the epidural around 7:15am and baby was here by 9:04am. I couldn't believe how fast things were going. When the doc came in and said it was time to push Nate and I were shocked. I pushed about 4 times and she was here. I can't complain about a 6 1/2 hour labor from start to finish.

I love everything about the way this labor and delivery went.

I can't believe I am so lucky to be the mom of two very beautiful and amazing little girls.

I am very overwhelmed with gratitude for the many blessings that my family has been given over the last few months. It has been challenging indeed to have Nate so far away, but we have been watched over and taken care of. Even though my faith has wavered often, I know that my Heavenly Father has listened to and answered many of my prayers.

Enjoy the pics. I hope to get some more up soon.

Here is my belly in all its glory. (Chels this is for you). This was taken just 3 days before I went into labor.

My precious babies. Lets hope Nate can handle all these girls!

I don't know why this picture is turned sideways but check out that hair!!! At first I didn't think she looked much like Cam but now I see a lot of resemblance.

Cam runs from cameras so this is the best we could do.

Our little family

So far Cambri has done well with the baby. I think it helps that baby sister had a present waiting for her at the hospital when she and Grandma Rencher arrived.

More pictures to come...

Patiently Waiting...

I have been without a computer for the last month so I am out of touch with the blogging world. I am also too lazy to post anything too exciting so I will just give you a quick update. Hopefully the next update comes complete with new baby pics.

I am finally down to the last few days of this pregnancy. For the most part I really do feel good, although if I don't take a nap when Cambri does I usually turn into an emotional mess and a lazy lump on a log. I think the guilt I feel for being a lazy momma is the hardest part to deal with. Being a single momma through this process has been a challenge as well. I truly have a greater appreciation for everything Nate does to help me out at home. Even if it is just for a few hours a day, having a dad and husband in the home makes the biggest difference. Both Cambri and I are anxious to have him home for good the first part of November.

Thankfully family will arrive this Saturday. Nate's mom will be here Saturday and staying for 2 weeks. And then my parents will come for a week. We are so very excited to see all of them. As much as I want to have this baby any moment (please) we hope she stays put until this weekend. After that I will be doing anything and everything to coax her out.

I have officially been told I look like I am ready to pop at any moment so I will not be posting any pics. I do know that I am huge but I still don't understand why perfect strangers feel the need to say such things. One day I will be tough enough to return those comments with a sassy remark.

We shall keep in touch!

Perfect Weekend

It really has been the perfect weekend. Nate had the weekend plus Labor Day off so he was able to drive home to see us. We have played hard and rested even more. We even had some fun playing a round of golf. Turns out I am not a good golfer with our without a big pregnant belly.

I have truly enjoyed having Nate home. It is amazing how much better life is when he is around. Both Cambri and I need him. It is nice to be able to play off of his energy since mine is almost non-exsistent lately. (I am turning into a big blob who has to pee all of the time.) The single mom life is one I hope I never have to experience for real. It does make me nervous to face the next few years. From the sounds of it, this year is just a taste of what is to come during the first few years of residency.

Life might be kind of crazy right now, but we are very blessed in so many ways. This summer has been proof that the Lord is aware of each of us and will provide strength beyond our own.

Speaking of blessings...

I love my little girl. She has turned into a full blown 2 year old and daily we experience many highs and lows. It keeps us both on our toes, but it also keeps me very entertained. The other day I was having a conversation with nate over the phone. I was crying and Cam kept giving me hugs and kisses telling me "its okay momma, Cambri make you so happy".

Anytime Cam wants a treat she will say, "Treat momma, it make my belly so happy!" And yesterday after telling her she couldn't get her baby stroller out she looked at me and said, "take baby on a walk and make her so happy!" It is hard to say no to these kinds of requests.

Sometimes I wish I had her life.

I have definitely had some nesting instincts kick in. If I actually accomplish any of my projects I will show a post of what I have been doing to keep me busy when the Cam Bam is sleeping.

Lots of Updates and Pictures...

First things first, we survived our LONG 5 weeks away from eachother!!! We still have many more lonely weeks but at least our little family gets to spend the weekend together. Yesterday Cambri and I drove to York, PA (a little 6 hour drive from Sandusky) to see Nate. Cams was so excited to see her daddy and has been loving every minute. I of course am loving my time with him too. Our time away has definitely renewed my appreciation and love for him. Luckily in 3 more weeks he will be moving to a rotation site that is only an hour away from us.

Last week my cousin took some pictures for me to document this pregnancy and get a few shots of Cams. She did a fantastic job and I couldn't be happier with the way they turned out. Thanks Misha! If you want her contact info let me know.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Now for our summer update in no particular order:

(basically it is a tribute to Cambri who has been my permanent shadow for the last month)

Nate's Bday was last month. We didn't really get to do much celebrating since it was the day he took step 2 of his Boards and then drove 10 hours thru the night by himself back to Ohio. The poor kid forgot it was his birthday so when he checked his phone on his lunch break during the test and saw that everyone in his family had called he thought for sure something bad had happened. We hope to make up for this lame bday when he is done with his cray schedule. I did get a chance to make him a cake. I think it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself:)-


It has no meaning behind it. It just looked like a fun cake to make. Happy late Birthday to Nate!

I have been on a sewing kick lately and was able to sneak in making a cute skirt for Cams while at home. Here is a nice rear view for you since she runs from cameras evertime I pull one out.

My little thief trying to sneak a sucker from the gas station. We were picking up Subway for lunch and while we were waiting I found her inching ever so slowly to the candy isle. She kept telling me to stay put and that she would be "right back momma". Little devil:). She loves treats way more than she should.

The day finally came to give Cambri her first real haircut.

I was sad to see her curls go (especially since it took so long to grow them) but she was growing a mullet and I promised myself I wouldn't do that to her long before she had hair. It took lots of Dora fruit snack and cartoons to hold still. She can be such a little stink bug:)

Once I made the first few snips I realized how cute it was going to be and I was happy to see the mullet go.

Here are my attempts at trying...

(I snuck this one right before she closed the pantry door on me)
and trying...

and trying...

and trying.....

to get a decent front view of the new 'do'.

Here is a picture taken of Cams back in September of last year.

She may not have been blessed with a full head of hair but she sure has come a long way in the last year.

This one is for my sis-in-law. Her little guy Spencer is probably one of the best babies I have ever known. He put up with lots of love/torture from Cambri. He smiles at you every time you look at him and it makes you want to attack him with hugs and kisses.

I just thought this one was cute. After creating her artwork she was more than happy to pose for this picture.

Just another attempt to take a picture of the little stink. This was before the haircut. You can kind of see the mullet.

Both Grandmas fed this little girl's new found Dora obbession. Dora dolls, bags, books, treats, movies....Dora is her new best friend.

Cambri has a new phrase that she uses ALL the the time, "no, Cambri do it". Here she is washing her own dishes. And yes we hang out in our underwear a lot at our house:)

How could I resist this cute little lady bug. I am super excited about dressing up for Halloween this year.

Obviously this little one has been the star of the show for the last 2 years. I sure hope she is ready to share the spot light. Ready or not the time is nearing. We are down to the last 7 weeks...CRAZY! I am getting anxious but at the same time loving the time I have had one on one with my Cam. I have my days when I feel sad that those days are numbered, but I know baby sister will be a blessing and I can't wait to meet her.

One last picture...

This is one of the things I miss most about Iowa (besides all my fantastic friends). I don't think these exsist in Utah because they would apply to 90% of the population. And unfortunately I haven't see them in Ohio either. But I took advantage of them during our week in Des Moines.

The blogging will be scarce over the next few months since Nate has our only computer with him, but I promise to keep you updated when baby #2 makes her appearance.

If you made it to the end of this long entry you are a good friend:).