Lily's coming home!

Lily got to come home on Saturday, July 31st.
The day was made more special because it was mom and dad's anniversary, 12 years!!!
The day was also marked because it rained! It has rained on the day we have brought every baby home.


The kids were super excited to see their baby sister again. And mom was excited/nervous to start being a mommy of 3.


So far, she is sleeping through the door slams of Bayli and the loud voice/screams of Chase. We hope this continues...


...how sweet our Lily grows.

and baby makes five

We welcomed Lily Mae Atherley to our family on Thursday, July 29th, 2010.

We had a set induction date-very nice to have a 'no later than' date. Jed and I arrived at the hospital at approximately 7:45 am. We underwent the rigors of admission, anxious to get the ball rolling.

We found that I had tested positive for GBS (a very common normal flora strep). Our eagerness to get through the day quickly was shoved out the door. They like you to have antibiotics on board for at least 4 hours before delivery. Thus, our Pitocin drip ran pretty slow, my arm burned from Penicillin, and my contractions were practically nothing for 4 hours.

My wonderful doctor called the nurse and said he was going to come break my water between 12:00 and 12:30 (it turned out to be more like 1:00). They also turned my Pitocin up.

We were again eager, knowing that we were getting closer.
Jed went to lunch after the changes.
When he returned I was having MEGA contractions and back pain. But, I kept denying an epidural. Until about 4 contractions later.
The anesthesiologist was busy in another room, but we were next on the list.
We had some serious focus sessions during that time. I kind of wished I had asked for the epidural a little bit earlier.
We finally got the epidural around2:30.

The nurse waited to check our progression until my pain went down and was reassured that I was tolerating the medications. She also gave me more penicillin-booo!!!
By the time she got to checking me, I was feeling a little more pressure. In my mind I thought, there is no way I should be fully dilated. But, it felt that way.
Sure enough, fully dilated. We were ready to have that baby and it had only been 2 hours?

My doctor arrived about 10 minutes later.
After only about 5 minutes of pushing, Lily arrived at 3:41 p.m.

She was 8 lbs 6 oz and 21 inches long. She has a very tiny head, like her momma 33.5 cm.

She is a very mellow baby. Doesn't cry much at all. Her cry is very quiet (thank goodness our prayers were answered-not a Chase repeater). She already has picked a schedule and it works perfectly with mommies. She has cute brown hair and darling round cheeks. She has beautiful hands and feet with long nail-beds like daddies.

Big brother and big sister are so excited for the baby. They were both eager to hold Lily.
Bayli was sad to leave when it was time for their visit to end. My heart broke when she had huge alligator tears rolling down her cheeks. It would have been nice if SHE could have stayed a little longer.

On the other hand, mom and dad were eager to see a rambunctious Chase leave. I think he pressed the nurse call button about 50 times, took mom for many a wonderful ride in the hospital bed, slammed all of the cabinet doors while playing hide and seek, screamed out the window at the cars below, wouldn't let anyone else hold the baby ("no, my baby!"), and was just down right LOUD.

We are so happy to have our little Lily,
...how sweet the lily grows.

all bellies head to silver lake

My sister and her family are here for a visit. After their straight through drive from Texas, they were up for a picnic in the canyon (I have no idea how they had the energy after that kind of drive).
So that is how we celebrated the 24th of July.
We headed to Silver Lake, along with hundreds of other Utahns. It is such a fast and easy location for little kids and fat ladies like me.
We live in such a versatile and beautiful State.

The unidentified spokes model for Capri Sun. He is so dang cute!

Me and my girls/support team. I am do in like 5 days.

The Group, I have no idea where McKenzi is.

The cutest little hikers. Bayli with her trademark pose, and Chase...being Chase, climbing and running everywhere. They had a wonderful time.

A typical family photo. We enjoy every second together. It just doesn't show when the environment is so exciting and we all try to sit and hold still.
Bayli switches to goof mode and Chase wants to be anywhere but in someone's arms.

Chalese took some belly pics. The lighting was bad so I had to black and white a lot of them.
My belly gets man-handled and kissed by Bayli frequently, almost hourly. She is so excited for her baby sister to come.

in a bind

the consequences of clipping on a blanket strap.



humiliating isn't it?
poor kid.

(no children were injured during this stunt. in fact, the child underwent this stunt by them self. i know, surprising, dad didn't do it!)

painted ladies

Last Christmas, Bayli received this cute butterfly cage. She has been driving us crazy for months, awaiting the time when it was safe to order caterpillars. When it was finally warm enough, and we began to see butterflies in our yard, we sent for our order.

She receieved 5 Painted Lady larvae (caterpillars). They came in a jar habitat, complete with food. All she had to do was make sure they were in a safe location and watch them grow. We received updates each morning, so cute.

They are kind of gross. They create a web-like environment and the food that is provided comes out looking the same as it did going in (only in ball form).

Bayli was so excited when they started to enter their pupae stage (chrysalis). We watched as each picked their desired locale and began their transformation.

Bay was pretty nervous as she awaited the day for them to break out and reveal their adult form. She kept saying (with dad's encouragement) "they aren't going to live, they probably all died!"

But, we were pleasantly surprised to see them all unveil themselves as beautiful butterflies. She was a successful butterfly keeper.

We kept them for a few days. Feeding them watermelon, orange slices, and lavender. Then it was time to let them enter the next stage of their short lives. Bitter sweet for Bay.

mime?

No, our new experiment with de-thumbing Bayli.
Crazy California Raisin gloves.
Very stylish.
Effective when left on.
Additional bribing is necessary.
Initially, money (dimes, nickels, quarters).
Then, "I have enough money, I want to earn prizes!"
Gloves remain on for 5 nights straight, winner takes home the prize.
And, oh yes, we do check in the night.
Cheaper than a pair of dikes? Probably not, well...maybe.

our fun with pops & sparklers

This year for the 4th of July, we were pretty laid back.
No parades, no getaways.
But, we had a fun time as a family.

We barbecued. Then we did some fireworks before heading off to see the big show at the park. The kids were super excited!

Bayli never settled down. She talked about doing fireworks all day long. She pretty much drove us a little crazy with, "is it time to do fireworks yet?"
She was a little nervous when she held a sparkler. But, she overcame her nerves and was a little more daring with them as the night grew.



We wondered what kind of reaction Chase would have. He loved doing pops. Avoided the sparklers, although he did call them pretty. And hovered behind mom during the fountains, all the while shouting "wow." He just didn't like the loud screaming ones. He loved picking one and handing it to dad to light though.



The kids had so much energy/craziness when it was time to head to West Jordan Park. It's holidays like these that I wish we could turn the sun off early. It is awful when the show doesn't start until 10:45. Nearly 30 minutes past the tentative time.
Darn Rodeo! If it weren't for you, things would be a bit easier.


We pretty much got the kids more hopped up on candy while we waited. Thank goodness we had brought extra sparklers to keep them a little more entertained.
They loved watching the show though. Chase yelled "wow" and made his banging noises all while clapping through the show. He was pretty interruptive for those around us, we didn't mind. Halfway through Bayli was ready to go home. No way girl, you are going to watch these fireworks and enjoy them!!! Her little body does not do well with staying up late. She was a trooper and toughed it out.

They both fell asleep on the ride home.

blooming, an unexpected gift

Jed and I both have a love for the desert and the beautiful plants that you find therein. When we were planning our yard and on the hunt for plants to nurture and enjoy, we knew that we had to have Yuccas.

Who would've thought that there are around 40 varieties throughout the US and Mexico? I always thought that a Yucca was a Yucca.

Some varieties were easy for us to find at the local nurseries.
(ie the Ivory Tower Yucca, Harriman Yucca, and the Navajo Yucca). I honestly do not know for sure if these are the varieties in our yard, but they look like them.

The one variety that stumped us in our search, and of course was Jed's top pick, was the
Banana Yucca. Or for those that care about the scientific name, Yucca Baccata.

For being a native variety, we could not find it anywhere.
It has a much more stately appearance than most Yuccas that you see locally. It has broader leaves that are more firm and pointy. It also has a more gray/blue-green color. It supposedly gets its name from the banana like fruit that it can develop which apparently tastes like sweet potatoes-hmmm.

Anyways, we were finally able to find our treasured Yucca in our favorite little Southern Utah nursery, a few years back. Jed payed a pretty penny for that plant!

We have watched it slowly grow. It hasn't taken off as fast as our other varieties, but we knew that it would one day.
This year, we again thought, is it going to do anything? We wanted to see more growth and maybe a bloom. But as spring began to close, no such luck.
Then, we noticed something fantastic occurring. It was growing a bloom!!!

You never saw a family so excited about a plant in your life, at least we'd like to think so. And it delivered, what a beauty!

It fascinates me how the blooms are more nestled into the base of the plant. Other varieties let them shoot up and tower above the plant. This variety reminds me of a wall of spikes surrounding an army, defending it from the unknown.

I love how it's leaves have a hairy-like curling on them. It makes them seem a little more delicate but also more threatening, like barbed wire on a fence.

And the blooms, of course, are gorgeous. As all Yucca blooms are.

Another variety that we purchased at the same fave nursery was our Red Yucca (not technically a Yucca). We never thought it would do well. Even now the base looks so limp and delicate, but it decided to bloom as well!