No More Diapers!

That's right! Abigale is potty-trained!! Hurray! The last three days she hasn't had any accidents and even when we put a diaper on her for naps or at night she wakes up dry and asking to sit on the potty. We tested her last night and took her on some errands and to dinner for a few hours and she did fantastic- no accidents. Today she was playing in the leaves with her Grandpa and she stopped and ran inside and told me she had to go. I am sure that there will be accidents in the future but for now I would say she is officially potty trained. Hurray! She is so funny because once she picks up on something, she picks up on it fast. That is how she was with signing, crawling, walking, and now this. We are so proud of her and it couldn't have come at a better time. We love you Abigale and thank you for making it easy on us!

Here are some random pictures of our two cute girls:

Look at Lydia's blonde hair! This picture more accurately shows her hair color. I love it!

Happy Birthday Sister!

Today is my sister Caitlin's birthday and since I have been a little busy lately, I didnt have time to get anything in the mail (so sorry) but I do want to let her know how much I love, miss, and appreciate her. She is an amazing person and sister and I listed a few things that make her so great:

1. She is one of my best friends

2. She is the most social person I have ever met. No matter where she goes she can find a party, if she is not the one throwing it

3.She is one of the most spiritual people I know

4. She ran a marathon (enough said)

5. She is an amazing athlete, especially at soccer.

6. No matter where she goes, she runs into someone that she knows even if it is someone that she met once a few years ago and makes them feel like they are one of her best friends

7. She was an amazing missionary and I know this for a fact because I am married to her zone leader

8. She introduced me to my amazing husband

9. She introduced me to the field of social work

10. A few years ago I flew out and stayed with her for a weekend when she lived in NYC and it was one of the best weekends ever.

There are many, many more but I dont want to embarrass her. I love you Caitlin and hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Abigale: The Big Sister

This is what a great big sister Lydia has...

We are home and out of the woods

It has been a very eventful 48hrs. Just when you think all is well, unexpected change occurs. Carley and Lydia were doing fine when I left the hospital at 8:00pm, I was asleep with Abigale at Mama and Papa Winmill's house when Judy came in and told me the hospital has been trying to get a hold of me. All the hospital could tell me is there has been complications with Carley and Lydia.

They told me Carley had started to bleed very badly and has had some concerning blood clots. Lydia was not keeping food down and has been moved to NICU to be put on an IV and was in need of x-rays.

I quickly put on my clothes and headed back to the hospital. I was driving back to the hospital thinking what I was going to do if these two very important woman ever left me, but I was quickly calmed by the spirit and told all was going to be fine. I arrived at the hospital to find Carley with puffy eyes and a bit scared. The doctors had to remove the clots with a painful procedure that Carley described as being more painful then the birth.

The x-rays came back on Lydia and showed that her small and large intestines were full of air bubbles, the doctors didn't ever find out what was the underlining cause, but assumed they were caused by an obstruction in her intestines.

Well the night became a waiting game. Carley was monitored every 15min, and steadily improved over the night. Lydia also was treated with some abrasive routines but come morning, she was doing a bit better. The following day and night were report after report of improvement on Carley and Lydia's health.

The next day they were both given the go ahead to leave. Our first night at home was a new adjustment with me on the couch with Lydia and Carley coming in every four hours to feed. Abigale is still enjoying her baby sister and our daughter just sleeps and eats.

We are thankful for all the prayers in our behalf, we are a blessed family and will continue to keep you updated. Here are a bunch of photos.

She Is Here!

Well, the baby has come! 7lbs 14oz, 11:58am, 21 inches.

This was an interesting birth to witness, Carley started to have contractions as soon as she arrived at the hospital. The contractions came quick and powerful. Carley requested an epidural and was given one soon after. She laid down to rest for a bit when she started to feel pressure and very sharp pains. The doctor came in and the labor was on. Carley gave birth to our new beautiful daughter before the epidural had time to work and has experienced unexpected natural child birth. We named our new daughter Lydia June Tanner. We chose the name from my family history. Lydia was the wife of the first Tanner to join the church. We immediately felt the spirit testify of the great meaning behind our choice.

Abigale was ecstatic when she saw Mom and Lydia. She immediately wanted to touch her and hold her. Carley, with all her wisdom, bought Abigale a new doll that distracted Abigale from all the attention on Lydia. Abigale then watched Carley's every move and did the same with her baby.

We are now a family of four, what a wonderful day!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Abigale!

This post is a little late but I want to write it before I go to the hospital in the morning and life really becomes crazy! That's right, tomorrow morning at 7:00 am I will be in the hospital delivering our baby girl! I am so full of emotion that I dont really know what else to say about it so I will just focus on Abigale.

In the morning we filled our family room with balloons so when Abigale woke up on her birthday, she was in heaven and didnt stop jumping and kicking for a good 10 minutes. We then went with some friends to the zoo because of her love for animals and she had a great time. She was so cute with her friends and was so excited to see everything. After the zoo, we took the kids to the park and had a picnic complete with cupcakes so we could sing happy birthday. After the zoo we took Abigale home and my parents came over for dinner (clam chowder in bread bowls, Abigale's favorite) and opened presents and had more cupcakes. She is one spoiled girl but we love her so much anyway! Happy Birthday Goose!

Grandma and Grandpa Tanner got Abigale this awesome chair. She loves pointing out all the animals and rocking her baby in it.

At dinner, Abigale sat on her papa's lap and wanted to feed him so instead of turning around she would just stick her arm in the air. It was pretty funny.

This is mostly just for me to remember how cute Abigale is right now but I want to write a few of my favorite things and what she is up to at the age of two:

- She is extremely nurturing. She has a baby doll that she loves to carry and is very gentle and caring. She loves to rock her, sing to her, and kiss her. She also loves to take care of others. Right now she is playing with her little kitchen and making me and Jonathan "dinner". She loves to give people hugs and kisses and now is on high fives. She will walk up to me and say "Mom, high five!" and put her hand out and then just walk away. I love it!

- Abigale is very sensitive. She hates when other kids cry and usually will try to give them a hug or else will start to cry with them. She also hates when people get hurt. My dad fell on his bike and scraped up his arm and for weeks everytime she saw him she would want to see his "owie" and would get the saddest look on her face. I hurt my thumb the other day and she almost started crying just because I told her I had an owie.

- She loves to cuddle with me in the morning and I must admit that even though I am tired, I love it too! She doesn't just lay next to me, but she has to have her head on my chest and will sometimes wrap her arms around my neck and fall asleep. It is really cute.

-Abigale is a morning girl for sure. She is usually awake by 6:30, no matter what time we put her to bed, and is ready to play.

- She loves Baby Einstein. She loves the movies, books. music, toys, etc.

- Her favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, clam chowder, toast with jam, cereal, Pringles chips, bean soup, cheese, and she will eat Ranch dressing with everything.

-In the morning, she eats her breakfast every day sitting in front of our back window counting the birds she sees. She always finishes her cereal and then has to drink the milk. It is perfect for me because it gives me a great chance to clean the kitchen.

-She loves to sing and knows all of the words to the following songs: ABC's, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, Jingle bells, the Barney song- I love you, you love me, Twinkle little star, Book of Mormon stories, and she knows parts of a lot of other songs.

-Abigale loves to count things and can now count to twenty

- She loves to draw and especially loves to draw on everything but paper- including walls, books, her feet and hands, her clothes, table, etc. Not too happy about this one.

-Abigale is almost potty trained. As long as we leave her diaper off all day she will always run to her potty when she has to go. If we put panties on her, there is about a 75% chance that she will tell us and go on the potty and if she has a diaper on about a 50% chance. I am sure she will have it all figured out soon.

- When someone comes over and she gets excited, she just starts jumping and running. It is the silliest thing. For example, when my mom comes over, for about five minutes she will just jump around the house and sometimes fall on the ground and start rolling as she just laughs and laughs. Once she is done jumping, she will run and give her a hug. It cracks me up everytime.

-I think that is all for now but it has been so nice just thinking about Abigale and how much we love her and how lucky we are to have her in our life. If our next little one is half as cute and sweet, we will be very blessed parents. I love you sweet girl!

Halloween Fun!

We have had so much fun the last few weeks enjoying the fall weather, preparing for Halloween, celebrating Abigale's 2nd birthday (more on that in a future post), and just enjoying having Abigale be an only child for a few more days (3 more days to be exact!!). I am starting to freak out just a little bit about the adventure that lies ahead but I am also extremely excited. Anyway, here are some fun pictures to show what we have been up to:
We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends and had a great time. Love this picture:I was trying to rake the leaves in our backyard and then dad came home and of course work quickly changed to fun!Picking out a pumpkin:

Getting ready to carve the pumpkin and there I am 38 weeks pregnant!:
Abigale loved cleaning out the pumpkin but her favorite part was drawing all over it with a pen. She stood at the table for about an hour "coloring" it and woke up the next morning asking to draw some more. It made for a very festive pumpkin.

On Halloween, Jonathan had to work so I went to my parents house and I think they had more fun then Abigale did, or at least it was close. Yes, that is my dad laying in the leaves.

My little snow white!

My dad was lucky enough to take her trick or treating and she loved it but she didn't quite understand why she had to put the candy in the bucket and not eat it right away.

We hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!