Kenzie Talk

Gigi and I were talking about things we needed to get from the store...

Me: We need to get a new pool because Kenz's has a hole in it.
Kenz: We going to get a new pool? (very excited)
Me: Yes we are cause yours has a hole in it.
Kenz: I want a blue one this time!!!
Me: Ok, we can get a blue pool.
Kenz: (Jumping up and down) We can get a blue one because it is much cheaper for us!

Do you think we talk about money and finding things cheaper?
haha

Cute Picture

Mackenzie wanted Daddy to rock her baby while she ate...

The things a Daddy will do.

Coming Home

Forgot to mention him coming home and some pictures...

Getting Dressed

First carseat picture

Kenz was so excited that he was finally home 

Adam's parents sent this...we got it a few hours after I got home. Yummy.

1 Week

I can't believe Tanner has already been here for 1 week.  I feel like he just got here, but also that he has been apart of our lives for soooo long.  He is sleeping most of the time and has been a really easy baby so far.  He wakes up about 2 times every night to eat and then just passes back out.  He is nursing really well and has just been so chill.  I am so thankful for a chill baby!!!! 

Mackenzie is still being so good with him.  She just wants him to be awake more than he is.  We keep telling her that in a few weeks he will want to "play" more, but she just has to wait a little longer. 

It is also just so great to have my mom here right now.  She is soo busy cleaning and doing laundry, cooking when we don't have meals coming in from church, and just helping with everything we need.  I am able to rest and just let myself heal while she is here.  Adam is back at work, so this has been great. 

I feel tons better and will soon be back to normal activity.  The only thing is my body just has to get used to no sleep again.  I have had a little bit of a headache lately, and I can tell it is just from the lack of sleep.  But that is what happens when you have a new born right?!? 

He also got his first bath at home and Mackenzie of course had to help.  Here are a few pictures...

Mackenzie has also gotten to enjoy her new pool.

Tanner went outside to chill while Mackenzie was "swimming".



Also having Tanner around has taught Mackenzie a few new things....

Yes, she is nursing her bear.

And here is our little boy at one week!

Birth Story

We were planning on having a baby no earlier than Friday June 10.  That was the day I was set to be induced.  It didn't look like I was going to go into labor any earlier than that, so everything was kinda on track with what we had planned. 

My mom flew into town on Monday, June 6 and we came home and got her a little settled before heading off to my doctors appointment.  At the doctor we started listening to the baby's heartbeat as usual, and the nurse was listening just a little too long.  So I asked her what was wrong.  She didn't seem really concerned, but said she wanted the doctor to hear the heartbeat and see what he thinks.  After she left the doctor came in, did my exam, and said he wanted to hook me up to a fetal monitor for a few mins to see what was going on.

He wasn't extremely concerned, but said he would feel more comfortable if we would just go to the hospital on Tuesday morning to be induced just to make sure his heartbeat didn't have time to drop anymore.

So we of course agreed and there we were...Mom had just gotten into town and we were having a baby in a few hours.

My mom and I had planned to have a week to get some last minute things together and do a little grocery shopping before Tanner got here, but that was kinda gone now.

So Monday night my mom and I raced around trying to get a little done while Adam took Mackenzie home to entertain her.

Tuesday morning Adam and I were at the hospital at 6 AM.  By 7 we were in the hospital room and I was all hooked up to machines with an IV and was starting to be induced. 

The doc came in to break my water at about 7:15, before he raced off to do a 7:30 C-section.  and then they started the pitocin drip.

Very soon I started having very nice contractions and lasted an hour or so before getting an epidural. 

Things were going very smoothly and I was progressing nicely and then by 12 I was ready to push.  The doc got there and after 4 pushes I had baby Tanner in my arms.  He was born at 12:36 and was healthy and good.  All went well.

By 3 or 4 (when the epidural wore off) I was moved into my postpartum room and working on recovering.

Right after I had Tanner and we called my mom to let her know everything went well (she was at home with Mackenzie) one of my bestest, most awesome friends went to pick my mom up and bring her and Mackenzie to the hospital to meet our little new buddy. 

When Mackenzie showed up at the hospital she was so cute.  She wanted to see her little brother and was so excited to meet him. 

She gave him a "Yaya" which is what she calls her little blankie animal thing, and he gave her a pool.  She was so excited to get a pool and couldn't wait to bring it home and play. 

But she talks to Tanner in a little baby voice and just wants to play with him constantly.  She also wanted to know wheat they were doing with "Baby Brother" everytime they took him out.  So she followed him to the nursery when he went...

Tanner wasn't nursing well at the beginning, but he is soing sooooo much better now.  I am just so happy because Mackenzie was so difficuilt to nurse for a few weeks.  We are all doing well and are so happy to have Tanner in our family!

Potty Training

Mackenzie has definitely been growing up so fast lately.  She is learning tons and is really loving being a big sister.  She is so fascinated with Tanner and wants to play with/hold/love/rock him all the time.  I can't leave them alone together because there is no telling how much "love" she might give to him with my back turned.  We are explaining to her that she has to be sweet and when he is sleeping, which is almost all the time, she doesn't need to bother him so that he can sleep. 

But the biggest thing she has done lately..by lately I mean about a month ago...is that she is potty trained!  This was such an easy process for us.  We waited until she was really ready and excited to start and it took less than a week.  We only had a few accidents, and none of them were bad at all.  We made a potty chart, she put one sticker on for peeing and two for pooping.  She had to get 20 stickers to get a prize.  Her prizes were like a little sticker book, or bubbles, or whatever.  She worked so hard to get those stickers. 

We tried the pull ups thing for less than a day.  Anyone who is trying to potty train, I would preach against them.  They feel too much like diapers and she knew that if she peed in them, it wouldn't be any different than a diaper.  With underwear, she didn't want to get wet so she worked really hard to tell me when she had to go. 

She still wears a diaper at night, but she is 100% during the day.  It makes things so much nicer now that I have another one in diapers.  I don't have to buy diapers for 2.  YAY!!!

Gigi also gave her a little incentive that if she was fully potty trained, with the exception of night time, she would be able to pick out 2 toys.  This is what she picked out...

The movie Tangled, and a baby seat (the doll she already had).

She absolutely loves both.  She puts her little doll in the baby seat and carries her around on her shoulder.  She also loves to place it beside Tanner's seat so the babies can lay together. 

I just can't believe how fast my little girl is growing up!

Precious Pictures of Tanner

If you want to go see precious pictures of Tanner go to this website...

bellababyphotography.com

and use the password...

mlip0607rankin

These are from the people who take pics at the hospital...

Who does he look like?

Yesterday we were trying to figure out who Tanner looked like.  We thought he looked a little similar to Mackenzie, but not really.

But then we looked at a picture of Mackenzie when she was born...

What do you think?

Tanner

Mackenzie

Tanner James Rankin

Most of you already know and have been dying for pictures, so here you go!

Welcome our little Tanner James Rankin!

He was born Tuesday, June 7 2011 at 12:36 in the afternoon.

He was 7 lbs. 10 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. 

He and I are healthy and doing well.  He (just like Mackenzie) has not done well with nursing.  Luckily this time he and I are working together to figure it all out.  We were planning on going home today, but because the pediatrician isn't happy with his nursing yet, she told us to stay at the hospital one more night.

So Adam, Mackenzie and Gigi are at home and having fun.  Mackenzie just loves her baby brother and is so happy he is finally here.  She has been waiting for so long!

Me at 39 Weeks

They let Mackenzie help wash Tanner for his first bath.

Our little boy is all clean.

Mackenzie is so happy to have a baby brother.

She is trying to be soft.

Our little family.

Mommy and Tanner

Daddy, Mommy, and Tanner

Daddy and Tanner

Gigi and Tanner

Mackenzie got to hold Tanner all by herself.

He is all warm and cozy.



I will tell more later, I just wanted to get some pictures up on the blog for everyone to see!

Another Video

She told me she wanted to read a book for her cousin Kaden...so here goes.  The only problem is that she got so excited I was video taping her (which always happens when I pull out the camera) that she forgot the book.  She really does know all the colors and animals in this book! haha.  But here she goes.

Starting on the Videos I promised...

This is just one of the many videos I have been promising for a while.  I finally figured out how to do the youtube thing...yeah I am waaaaay behind!

Poppy and Kenzie had a great time at the beach.



And this is Mackenzie while I was showing her the video...do you think she was excited?

Just one more about the beach...I will translate under the video...

(Wanna go another time at the beach. And lets play at the beach and play sand.  And went run run in the water get us.  There was more water trying to get us. And we were running fast so the water not get us.  And we went in it!)  That is basically the gist.

I will keep working on getting more videos on the blog.

Enjoy!

Finishing my trip

I am finally back in Colorado, but we had a wonderful last bit of our trip.  I can't believe how many pictures I actually took.  You should be very proud of me because normally I have all good intentions of taking cute pictures and then I either forget my camera or just forget to take pictures. 

So to continue our trip...

The night before Easter we dyed eggs.  Papa and Nana were over also to watch.  Kenzie really enjoyed making them all solid colors.  And if you tried to change it...she would tell you that was HER EGG!  Which meant that is how she wanted it and leave it alone.

Then we went to see fireworks and the Kinston Indians Stadium.  We were going to go to a game while I was home, but it just didn't work out.  This stadium was my home for many summers.  I worked there every summer starting at either 14 or 15.

Mackenzie was waiting for the fireworks to start, so she was playing in the car.  She loves to buckle and unbuckle seat belts.

I stayed in the car, but everyone else got out to watch.  Nana and Papa met us there to watch the fireworks as well.

Gigi, Kenzie and I also had fun picking strawberries.  I have always loved fresh picked strawberries.  There is NOTHING like them.  Kenzie thought they were pretty good too.  She ate 2 that she picked while we were finishing our buckets.  She had a good time finding the bright red ones!  She actually picked about 15 herself.

Then came Easter.  Mackenzie was worried that the Easter Bunny wouldn't come to Gigi's house, so we wrote him a letter before we left to let him know where we were going to be. (I never thought a 2 year old would understand this concept, but she asked me every day for about 5 days if the Easter bunny would find us at Gigi's house).  I guess he got it because on Easter morning her basket was full.

She was so excited to look at everything, this is the best picture I got.

 Mackenzie in her Easter dress right before church.

Poppy has been doing a huge garden for a few years now and I guess it is just too much work to do it by hand.  So he borrowed a tractor to plow everything up.  Mackenzie and Kaden went outside to watch.  Mackenzie even got to drive the tractor with Poppy.  She had a great time.



Then we got a blow up pool for Gigi and Poppy's back yard.  Mackenzie went swimming 2 different days.  Yes, it was very warm there and not too cold for a pool.  I can't wait for constant warm weather!  I am sick of up and down 80s then 40s!!!!

There is also a great park that we went to play at 2 or 3 times.  It has a nature center, planetarium, and park with lots of fun things to do.  This is actually another place I worked for a summer (the planetarium).  Now they even have a train there to ride with a real conductor and everything.  The place has definitely changed since I worked there.  We have tried to ride this train the last 3 times I have been home and either it was broken, closed, or there weren't enough kids to ride I guess.  So finally we got our chance!  At first Mackenzie was a little scared, but we had a good time.  Gigi even rode along with us.

Not quite sure about things yet.

Enjoying the scenery. 

A cute indian set up they have on the ride.

A real live train you can go in a look at!

Picture op!

And Mommy had to get in one at least.

We had such a fun time in NC this time.  We hung out and had fun, but also did a ton of things, as you can tell from the blog! 

I have a few videos also to come, I just have to load them and they take FOREVER!  But if I don't do it soon, they will never get done.  So they should be up soon. 

And lastly I just have a fun picture of Kenzie with Gigi and Nana at Outback the night before I left to go back home.