Maddyn singing---Part 2

Maddyn Singing, "Nephi's Courage" (a children's song from our Church). Once again, IGNORE my singing :)---pretty easy with this little sweet pea singing along.

Maddyn Singing

This is Maddyn singing, "The Rainbow Song"---a favourite around bedtime. She had just had a bath and was in the mood to sing :) IGNORE me in the background!

Summer Fun

It has been FOREVER since I updated this blog. I sort of stopped doing it altogether, because I just seem to be terrible at it! Anyway, here are a few recent photos of the kids (for anyone needing a bit of an update!).

We're currently in Lethbridge now---just renting until next spring, so that we can sell our house in Okotoks without any fees/penalties and be DONE with it all. THEN, we'll buy a home here in Lethbridge.
Things are going well so far! The kids are loving their "new house". Cohen and Maddyn are just hilarious together! Their little imaginations are just so vast. They both love to sing, especially Maddyn. She's getting pretty good for a 2 year old! Her favourites are "I am Like a Star" and "The Rainbow Song". We sing them every night before bed, without fail! Every now and then I'll catch her singing "Choose the Right" from the hymn book. SO CUTE.
Cohen is into Super Mario Brothers right now. He'll pretend to be playing with Mario all the time these days. It's SO GREAT having him potty trained now. It took FOREVER, but he's doing really well....very few accidents! Thank goodness!
It'll be Maddyn's turn pretty soon here. She's getting more and more ready for it.
We've been busy lately with weddings galore (two of my cousins), so a couple of the photos are at the Cardston Temple. The kids had a blast!

I've been crazy busy with my home business (www.jillscustomwallart.com). I keep getting more and more orders out of the States, which is nice! It's nice to make a little money here and there, even though it's not a huge amount, it helps for  little "outings" and special dinners sometimes, etc. I can't complain! I haven't had a lull in the 3 years that I've been doing it, so I'm crossing my fingers that it stays that way!

The weather has been super rainy lately. Good for the farmers, not so good for small children cooped up inside! Today is a nice warm sunny day, so we hit the park this morning and the kids LOVED it. That's another great thing about Lethbridge, LOTS of playgrounds to explore!

Well, I think that's it for now! Hopefully I can update this more often again......hopefully!

Yeah, I'm not even going to attempt to catch up with everything that's happened since I posted last!
The other day, Maddy finally decided to start crawling!!!! I've been impatiently waiting and waiting for her to figure out that she can move her hands forward! This girl can do perfect yoga poses, but wouldn't take that leap of faith.
Anyway, now she's bumping her head into everything and whatnot. Good ol' mobility! She also loves to crawl under the piano bench and chew on the foot pedals (gross, I know). I pull her out of there as quickly as I can! Uck. I guess they're "shiny"?

After 2 and a half years, they released me from being the Primary Pianist, and now I get to teach in Relief Society---yay me. I'm NOT a public speaker kind of girl, but it's once a month, so I mean.....not bad really. I was initially shocked, but I think I'm over it :) My first lesson is on the 19th....and I'm also singing in Sacrament Meeting with a friend that day.....so.....a day of rest will turn into a day of STRESS. Should be interesting!

We're in the process of converting our "loft" area upstairs into Maddyn's bedroom. She needs to have her own room.....or rather, WE NEED OUR ROOM BACK! :) She's up 2-3 times in the night now---we were doing well, only up once, and now it's progressed into some bad habit! It'll be fun breaking her of that, but it has to happen now, or I'll lose my mind from sleep deprivation. Good times.

Hmmm.....looking forward to Christmas! We're doing "early Christmas" with my family the weekend before the actual holiday....and then we'll be spending Christmas Eve/Day, etc with Jared's family this year. I really just can't wait to see Cohen's reaction to everything, as he's more at the age now where he can really comprehend what's going on (the whole "Santa" thing), etc.

For some reason (and i'm NOT complaining) Cohen has been getting more and more polite in these last few weeks. He's a pretty good little boy in general---always has been, but lately he's been racking up the thank you's and please's. I'll hand him something that he asked for and he'll say, "Oh! Thank you very much Mommy. Thanks for getting that for me.". He's such a sweetie. I hope it continues! I can't stand bad manners, so this is great!!!

I'm drawing a blank, so that's it for now I guess!
As I seem to take like months to write each entry, I'd better wish you all a very Merry Christmas!! We hope your holiday season is full of love and laughter!

~The Russells~

Maddyn had her 2 month shots today....

I had missed her acutal first appointment, and this was the earliest I could re-schedule! She'll be 3 months in a couple of days, so it's a little belated, but whatever!

She cried when the needles went in, but was completely silent right after, and throughout the rest of the time there (15 minute wait afterwards), etc. I couldn't believe it! She's definitely got her big brother beat on this one!

Maddy weighs in at 12 lbs 2 oz now, and 23 1/4" long. She's getting so big! You know your baby is getting bigger when they graduate to the 1 ml category on the back of the Tylenol bottle...ha ha.

Last night she slept from about 10 pm to 5:30 am! I'll take it! We're starting to get more and more longer sleep streches now, so that's a good sign I hope! The 3 month mark seems to be the magic time for a lot things really. I can't wait to put her in the Jolly Jumper. When you hold her upright under her armpits in your lap, she won't sit! She loves to stand and tries to jump all the time, so I'm thinking it'll be a good thing for her. We just need a touch more strength in her neck, and she'll be good to go!

Cohen's still talking up a storm...and getting much more creative. He loves talking to his teddy bears and pushing them around in his dump truck. He gets very concerned if they fall out....we usually have to give them kisses, and then off they go!

We were in Waterton this past weekend, and they have a new spray park for the kids, which Cohen LOVED. I'm no longer worried that he'll never go in the water at our spray park here in town, that's for sure! We saw lots of Deer (as usual) and a group of 5 mountain goats...all of which were right in front of our cabin.....the deer were hanging out in our yard. We're so blessed to have the family cabin available to us every summer! Waterton has a special place in my heart for sure, and I'm so happy that Cohen has such a great time there! He keeps saying, "Let's go to the mountains" :)

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary (5 years!!!!!). We're heading down to Great Falls to do some shopping. Yes, I know....when you think "romance" you immediately think of Great Falls, Montana!!! haha. We just wanted somewhere close where we could still "Get away", etc. We're leaving Cohen with his Grandparents and just taking Maddyn, etc. Should be good!

Hmm....I think that's it for now!

I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm just TERRIBLE at updating this thing!

Where to begin...

Our beautiful little girl: Maddyn Grace Russell, was born or April 20th, 2010 at 10:02 am. She weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz. She will be 2 months old in 4 days!!! I really can't believe it! She is very different than her brother Cohen was as a baby. Maddy is way more gassy and spits up all the time. I think she has a mild form of GER (reflux) to be honest. She fits the description in more ways than one! Luckily though, it's not so bad that she's vommitting or anything to that degree. I just have to have a burp cloth nearby or a bib on her after she eats, and away we go!

She smiles and talks/coos all the time....and when she smiles, she smiles BIG. It really melts my heart! I love happy babies! ha ha. Maddyn is extremely hard to get to sleep, for the most part. She fights it like crazy! As soon as you swaddle her, whether it's a snug or loose swaddle, she starts crying. She KNOWS it's nap time and she lets us know how much she dislikes the idea!

Thank goodness for baby swings and bouncy chairs with a vibrate setting! I probably would be tearing my hair out if we didn't have both of those around. She's also one of those babies that for the majority of her naps will wake up within 10-20 minutes of being laid down (unless of course you're holding her). UGH. Boy is that fun! The swing is really the only exception to this rule......and I will buy a million D-Cell batteries until that thing quits on me! Thank goodness for Kory and Rachel for giving that to us! LIFE SAVERS!

Maddyn has beautiful auburn colored hair, thicker in the back. It looks brown until the sunlight hits is, and you see this golden/copper color throughout. I hope she keeps that color! It's beautiful. Definitely different from her white-blonde haired brother...who has kept that color since birth!

I think she'll have blue eyes...possibly green. Cohen and I have blue eyes, and Jared has a greeny-hazel, so we'll see what happens!

She's TALL. She started out at a little over 21 inches long, and within 5-6 weeks, she had grown 2 inches! I love that she is filling out her cute little clothes now! Before we know it, we'll be graduating into the 3-6 month stuff :)

Maddyn loves her Daddy! and her brother. She tracks them with her eyes and listens to them intently....smiles and coos at them. Cohen is constantly kissing her, and most of the time, she'll smile when he does it. I hope they end up being best friends. I think being just under 2 years apart will help with that. There's a 6 year gap between my brother and I, and it's definitely hard to relate when you're that far apart in age. I was in 6th grade when he graduated from High School, etc. SO, I'm glad that we chose to keep our kids close together.

We blessed Maddyn on the 6th of June. Jared did a wonderful job, and we had a great day with all of our extended family that was able to make it! The weather was great too, which was wonderful. My parents were able to take a few nice family photos down by the river. I really just wanted one or two for memory's sake, etc. I wish I had had a natural birth and could have started exercising much sooner though...haha. Not a fan of not looking like myself in these photos, but that's part of life.

I'm surprised at how motivated I am to get back in an exercise routine and lose this baby weight. I just recently got the green light from my OB to exercise in moderation (I had the c-section, so it takes longer to heal, etc)....so I'm looking forward to trying things out this week. I have about 12 lbs to lose to get back to where I was when we got pregnant with Maddyn...which won't be hard to lose....however, I was still carrying around 10 lbs from Cohen's pregnancy. SO, here is my master plan:

Short term goal: Lose the 12 lbs from this pregnancy.

Next goal: Lose another 20 lbs.

Next goal after that: Keep going!

*I want to get back to around the weight I was at when I met Jared.....which will take me a little while, but I know it's acheivable!

With Cohen's pregnancy weight, I started out doing "Turbo Jam"---you may have seen the infomercials. Some other ladies had mentioned that they liked it, so I thought I'd give it a try. I lost the first 10 lbs of the 50 I had to lose right away. THEN, Jared and I started P90X together----which I would reccommend to anyone! it's awesome! I lost another 30 lbs in that 3 months. SO, I lost 40 out of the 50 lbs, etc, then got pregnant with Maddyn :) I didn't really have much time to enjoy being a bit lighter, but that's ok! Now that I know how my body heals, I'm starting MUCH earlier this time around to exercise, etc. I'll have to post an older photo of me at the weight I was at when I met Jared....so everyone that knows me can be amazed at how great I used to look...lol. I'll get there again!

I really just want to look and feel great and be healthy enough to run around with my children :) I can do that now, but I don't "feel" great, like I want to. Anyway, that's the plan for now! Now it's just a matter of finding TIME to exercise. I think a shortly after dinnertime and before Cohen's bath time is the opportune window.

Our FIFTH year wedding anniversary is coming up on July 16th!!!!! FIVE years! I think that if you now love your spouse MORE than you did when you married them, that's a good sign that your marriage is on track :) I would profess my love for Jared on here, but he'd probably be embarassed :) and words cannot really fully express how much I love him anyway! Let me just say that he's the best father and husband that I could ask for. Ok Jared, that's it.

We're hoping to skip across the border to either Kalispell or Great Falls Montana for one night...leaving Cohen with G&G Russell and just taking Maddyn of course. The only catch...Maddyn doesn't have a passport yet...so we're hoping a birth certificate will suffice? We have to phone the border patrol and see what the deal is. It'd just be nice to have a bit of a break and trip. We'll see.

Here's my "Jared" plug......If you or anyone you know wants Air Conditioning for their home......Jared can install it for you for significantly less than a commercial company. Don't worry, it's what he does for a living! Calgary and surrounding towns like Airdrie and Okotoks......

Well, that's it for now! Here's a photo of me in the good ol days, and Maddyn at 8 weeks old :)

Well, apparently my children just LOVE my womb, because neither one seems to have wanted to leave it!
As of this morning, I haven't made any progress, and I'm due tomorrow....so we've opted to schedule a repeat section for this Tuesday, the 20th. My chances drop to about 25% for natural delivery once I pass my due date, etc.....
At least we know when she'll be here!!
I'm still a little sad that I won't be able to experience delivery the other way, but I have to count my blessings and realize that everything will be alright....despite the fact that the recovery won't be fun at all....again.

Anyway, so, our little girl will be arriving in 4 days!!! We just can't wait to meet her and see how Cohen adjusts to the reality of her being here! I think he'll be an awesome big brother :)

Wish us luck!