Ballet

Near the end of January I took Hazel to see BYU Theatre Ballet's production of Swan Lake. We both LOVED it so much and it was so nice to spend time just the two of us. Poor Eliza was very sad she couldn't join us, but I promised her next year when she's 3 she can come too. I love having girls to pass on my love of ballet to!

The ballet was wonderful! The dancers were so expressive and they all performed beautifully. It made me miss dancing a lot! But there is a time and season for all things in life. Some day maybe ballet will be a bigger part of my life again, but for now I'll just enjoy watching my girls grow to love ballet and teaching them:)

Hazel and Odette after the show

Life with Three

The question I get asked most frequently right now is "how is it going with three kids?" To be honest, my answer so far is "not as hard as I was expecting." Yes, there are days when it's hard to juggle all three. Yes, I feel more stretched at times. Yes, my house is a bit dirtier. But I feel like that's more due to having a newborn than having three kids. Plus, I happen to think I have the most adorable three kids so that makes it all worth it.

Now for more on those three adorable kids...

Hazel has been such an amazing big sister. She is a great baby holder and loves to help out. I see her growing and maturing more each day. She is learning to sacrifice things she wants for her sisters. For example, yesterday she was given a CTR ring in Primary and decided to give it to Eliza because she knew it would make her happy.

Recently Hazel asked me some why question (which she does about 100 times a day). I told her honestly that I didn't know. Her reply was priceless, "Mom, do you really not know or do you just not want to tell me?" Oh Hazel, always keeping us on our toes! She also recently built a temple out of blocks complete with Angel Moroni.

Little Eliza has had a bit of a hard time adjusting to not being the baby of the house any more. The first few weeks after Lenora was born were rough. She was having massive tantrums over the littlest things, struggling to listen and follow directions, and even hiding under her bed any time someone stopped by for a visit. I'm happy to say she's doing much better now and seems to enjoy Lenora. She will wake up from her nap and immediately seek her out. She calls her "Little Lee-NOR-ee" in the cutest voice you've ever heard!

"Mom, I'm not sure sure about this thing."

Eliza has been obsessed with puzzles lately. She LOVES them and amazingly really good at puzzles for her age. She can do 25 piece puzzles with little to no help! She also has some adorable saying right now. When we mention something she likes she will gasp loudly and say "My FAVORITE!" (but she sure has a lot of favorite things hehe). She can also frequently be heard yelling "HAZEL!!! NEVER! EVER!" That's her catch all phrase for I'm upset with you so stop it.

Then there's sweet Lenora. She is such a precious little girl. She is an easy, go-with-the -flow baby and rarely cries without a reason. If she is upset, 99% of the time holding her or putting her in the wrap or sling with make her happy again. She is also an AMAZING cuddler. We all seriously fight over Lenora cuddles.

So over all three is wonderful. Exhausting but wonderful! Here are my three beautiful girls all ready for Lenora's first Sunday at church. I braved taking all three of them to just Sacrament by myself when she was two weeks old! With Michael's calling, he is rarely able to sit with us at church any more. Thankfully there is an amazing sister in the ward, Sister Callahan, that sits with me and helps me out.

Little Squeaker

Lenora makes the most adorable squeaking sounds as she is just waking up. Instead of crying or fussing she just squeaks and grunts then squeaks some more. One day I called her my "little squeaker" and the name stuck. Now when the girls hear her waking up they'll say "Mom, I hear Squeaker!"

Here's the little squeaker at one week old....

Lenora's delivery story

Here's the story of Lenora's grand entrance in to the world. Continue reading only if you like that sort of thing.

By my 38 week appointment on Thursday it was very apparent that Lenora was going to be early just like Hazel and Eliza . I was already 4cm dilated and 75% effaced (plus I've never made it to 39 weeks with any of my pregnancies). By Thursday afternoon I was having pretty regular contractions to the point where I cancelled my work appointment. But they died down by that evening. I should mention too that I had been feeling really odd all week. It felt like I had the flu coming on but I knew I wasn't getting sick.

Friday was uneventful besides Michael attempting a "labor inducing" foot rub:) On Saturday about noon I started having regular contractions again. I went for a walk and they picked up and were getting stronger. We decided not to head up to Salt Lake for my sister's birthday party and had my brother and his wife come pick up the girls so they could go to the party. I packed them an overnight bag hoping this was the real deal and someone in the family would need to keep them:)

Contractions were still regular but not strong so I decided to go on a cleaning rampage. From about 3pm until 8pm I cleaned, installed the car seat, did laundry, sorted, organized, etc, etc. I just wanted the house to be spotless. By about 8pm contractions were starting to hurt more, but I refused to leave for the hospital until I finished steam mopping the floor. I know Michael thought I was crazy by this point but was a total sweetheart and didn't say a word.

Of course things slowed down on the car ride in and I got the "yeah right you're not in labor" looks from the nurse. I was disappointed to hear I was still only a 4 but after an hour of monitoring I was at a 5 and contractions were picking up again so they admitted me (this was just before 10pm).

After another hour I was at 6cm and the doctor decided to go ahead and break my water since contractions were still not very strong. I was mentally prepared for things to pick up very fast but shockingly almost the opposite happened. My contractions slowed down for nearly an hour. But then once they picked up they started getting painful.

I had mentally prepared myself this time around for the possibility of a natural birth. With Eliza I was in a ton of pain and had to wait forever for my epidural and was complete minutes after it started working. So I wanted to be more prepared to deal with the pain if that happened again. I was doing well handling the pain and was dilated to 7cm and 100% effaced. I thought to myself "I can do this I think". But then it just didn't feel right. For some reason I couldn't explain I felt like I should get the epidural. So I went ahead and got my epidural about 1am. Later I was SO thankful I had....

The epidural worked like a charm and I even caught a bit of sleep. In fact, the nurse woke me up to check me and I was complete and ready to push. I was shocked when after only a few pushes she was crowning! (I pushed for almost an hour with Hazel and about 15 minutes with Eliza).

The doctor was in the process of offering me an episiotomy along the same scar where I'd torn with both girls since it was already starting to tear a bit. But then Lenora's heart rate started dropping rapidly and the episiotomy was no longer an option. They need to get her out as quickly as possible. Two short pushed and she was out. Once she was out they found her cord was very short and wrapped around her neck. Her heart rate started dropping when she crowned because the cord got pulled tight. Thankfully it wasn't pulled tight long enough to do any harm and she was crying almost immediately.

I got to hold her immediately and was instantly in love!

Now on to why I was SO thankful for my epidural.... After delivering the placenta my doctor did the standard push down on your uterus thing and said something didn't feel right. He examined the placenta and confirmed it was all there, but it felt like there was more inside. Long story short, he ended up having to do a manual sweep of my uterus to remove an extra lobe of the placenta. It hurt a bit as the epidural was beginning to wear off, but I can't imagine how much pain I would have been in had I gone natural then had to endure that. Even my nurse commented how glad she was I had the epidural because seeing women experience that without it is terrible.

Even with the minor bumps at the end, this was my easiest delivery. It was peaceful and laid back. And of course the end result was wonderful!

Lenora!!!

Sweet baby girl Lenora Faye Ballard was born January 12th at 2:39am!

7lbs 2oz and 19 inches tall

We were so excited to welcome little Lenora to our family. She was my easiest delivery and has also been our easiest baby so far. She made her grand entrance 11 days early just like Hazel. She was just 1oz and 1/4" bigger than Eliza.

 

Out of the three girls Lenora looked the most different at birth. Hazel and Eliza were born looking nearly identical. While Lenora shares some of their features, she definitely has her own look. Her hair is just a dark but not nearly as long or wild. My mom says that of the three girls she looks the most like me as a baby. 

Lenora was born early Sunday morning and Hazel and Eliza came by Sunday after church to meet her. They had to give her the lovey they had picked out for her immediately:) I'm pretty sure the are the three most beautiful girls in the universe!

After a few pictures they proceeded to smother little Lenora in her loveys...

Lenora has eaten like a champ right from the start. She is also the BEST cuddler!

When she was first born she had little elf ears. The top parts were completely flat with no ridge. They only stayed that way for about a week but were so sweet while they lasted.

 

By the morning after she was born we were all ready to go home...

I don't know why it continues to amaze me the instantaneous love you feel for those sweet little babies but it does. With Lenora it was just like with Hazel and Eliza - I was instantly totally and completely enamored by her. Sometimes you wonder how the new addition will fit in your family, but once they are there, you wonder how you ever lived without them. That's exactly how we feel about Lenora. She was a missing piece of our puzzle that we didn't even know was lost. I'm so glad she's here with us!

Train Date with Grandpa!

For my dad's birthday we "gave" him a Grandpa date. We rode the train up to Temple Square to see the lights. We picked a really busy day to go but it was fun. As always, the train was a big hit!

Christmas 2013

This year Christmas was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eve with all of my family then spent a nice quiet Christmas Day at home. It was a perfect balance of celebration and remembering the true reason for the season - our Savior Jesus Christ.

Christmas Eve in our family always means Mexican food and this year did not disappoint! I also set up a short Nativity because Hazel really wanted to act one out. When Harrison, Gabby, and I were kids we would plan and present a little nativity each year. So it was really fun to bring that back tradition with the next generation!

The angels minus Eliza who was being a sad little angel.

"Pregnant" Mary and me.

Mary and Joseph. Thanks to Rebecca's mom for the awesome costumes!

 The boys also had some fun on Christmas eve playing with Nerf guns. My brother-in-law Jake's family had a Nerf battle planned for Christmas day so he wanted to prepare. I was shocked how much the girls enjoyed the Nerf guns. Eliza was especially good at aiming and shooting them.

Then the girls opened gifts from my parents and we headed home so set out milk and cookies for Santa. They went to bed quickly with all the Christmas magic in the air. I love watching kids experience Christmas. It is the best!

Gabby and my Mom made the girls the most adorable "big sister" blankets. They LOVE them!

Christmas morning we took exactly 3 pictures haha. The girls loved their little surprises from Santa and the couple of gifts we had gotten them. We choose to keep Christmas small again this year and I think we'll stick to it every year. It's exciting but doesn't become only about the gifts.

 

Then we hosted a brunch at our home for a few people in the ward with no family in town. We enjoyed it so much I think it will become a yearly tradition. The rest of the day was spent enjoying time together and new toys.

I am so thankful for this Christmas season. I truly felt supported and sustained through the whole month of December and it was a wonderful reminder of all our Savior does for us. We are so blessed to have Him and the knowledge of His divine purpose here on earth.