Spring has Sprung!

I love spring!! It is so beautiful outside and all the world seems to come back to life with all the flowers and trees. Loving it! It is also a perfect time to be outside, not to hot and not too cold...just perfect weather. Lexi loves going outside, well she calls it "bye - byes". So we have been making sure that we take time everyday to just play outside a little bit. We have taken some fun pictures of our outside play time. Enjoy!

Birthday and Easter Celebrations

Good Friday was also Rabu's birthday. Since it was Good Friday Rabu was home from school, so we got to celebrate him all day long. We started with a birthday breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. Yummy. Then I gave him his birthday cake...pound cake. It is his aunties special recipe and his absolute favorite. Then for dinner we had steak with avocado salsa and bacon wrapped shrimp. That night we ended a day of celebration by the family piling in the bed and watching Rabu's favorite movie, The Lion King. It was a perfect lazy day. He even had some sweet friends Bree, Ric and Laney come over and bring him a very special gift. Gotta love good friends. So all in all I would say he had a great birthday.

Easter Sunday was Paisley's first time to go to church, we did not go into the main service, we just hung out with Daddy in kids church. He did a great lesson with the kids for Easter Sunday. He is so gifted to work with kids. Then we were off to my parents house in Tahlequah. My sister and her family were there as well. Mom made a great meal and had Easter baskets for the kids. Here are a few pictures from Easter.

Paisley and Family Two Week Photo Session

Click on the picture below to link to our family photo session for Paisley's two week photos. Enjoy

Paisley Noelle ~ Week Two

OK, so I promise I am not going to do weekly updates, but Paisley has already changed so much. We went to her two week check up and she is already 8 lbs 15.5 oz!! She is gaining weight like a champ. Those who know the stress that we had the first two weeks of Lexi's life because she was not gaining weight know what a blessing this is to us! Thank the Lord!!

Lexi is really warming up to her little sis. She is such a great helper. She gets diapers for me and she helps me calm the baby down by patting her back. She loves to point out her eyes, nose, feet and elbows. It is so cute how she is processing having a little sister.

We went and had some pictures taken yesterday of Paisley and the family. We took two week pictures with Lexi and wanted to do the same with Paisley. I think they are going to turn out great. Although Lexi was not totally thrilled with the idea of getting pictures taken, she did OK. We did not get the pictures of the girls that I was hoping for, or even a really good family picture, but you know that is how it is with a 20 month old and there is not too much you can do about it other than roll with it. I will post a link when we get the proofs so that you can take a look.

As far as life getting back to normal, I think that will be a while. I am feeling really good as far as my recovery, but I will tell you, there is this wall that you hit at week two. I hit that today, I had grand plans for doing dishes, laundry and going to the grocery store today, I could not get enough energy to do anything until about 2 this afternoon. Instead, I spent the morning on my couch with my baby girl in my arms and rested. Now I have managed to put a few loads of laundry in and do the dishes, but I am not going to the store, I will simply make Rabu a list and he will get the honors. :) It's all about just doing what you can and not worrying about the rest.

Paisley has pretty much figured out her days and nights and sleeps a lot. When she is awake she is wide awake and looking around at her world, wide eyed and taking it all in. She is a pretty easy baby. She cries when she is hungry or has a little bubble in her tummy, and is fairly happy the rest of the time. She has a really sweet spirit about her. I cannot wait to watch her grow into a lovely young lady who loves God and lives out her purpose. I also cannot wait to see her and Lexi interact more. There is something very special about sisters and I am excited that they have each other.

Ok, I guess that is enough of the ramblings of a tired but very content mommy. :)

Paisley Noelle - Week One

It has been one week since Paisley joined our family. What a blessing she is! The delivery went as perfect as expected. We knew we were going in for a c-section, and since I had one with Lexi, I kinda knew what to expect. We had friends at the hospital all along the way: one of Rabu's student's parents was our Labor and Delivery nurse, a sweet friend from Church is the Labor and Delivery Nurse manager, and another sweet friend from Church was working in the nursery. It was nice to see friendly faces all along the way. God totally went before us and made this a wonderful experience.

They took me back to the OR at 9:00 last Tuesday, once they had given me my spinal block and were ready to get started they brought Rabu in. Then the doctors did their job. Seems like next thing I know I hear Dr. Blackstock saying, "oh my goodness, she is gorgeous!" and then baby girl let out a scream!! I am so glad she started crying right away. As many moms know its that split second from when the baby is delivered until they hear their baby cry is a little stressful. I just started crying when I heard her very strong voice. She was here! So Rabu went back with the baby as they cleaned her up and took all her stats. 8 lbs 6 oz, Born at 9:30 am, 20.75 inches

The doctor asked if we had named her yet, and I answered as I had answered for the last 3 weeks... We have not decided yet. Even though we were pretty sure we were going with Paisley. The nurse that is a friend of ours said, uh he is telling the name in the other room.... I asked what he was saying and thankfully Paisley was the answer. So then she was named! Well half way. We still did not have a middle name. Oh well we had 3 days to come up with something. Thankfully it did not take us 3 days, by the next day we had decided on Noelle. Paisley Noelle Leyva...our beautiful little lady.

My sister had brought me this adorable blanket right before delivery it was a quilt made out of the sheets that matches Paisley's bedding in her crib and another fabric. The other fabric had a paisley pattern on it. It made me smile, well I guess I smirked because after Lea heard the name she said, "that is why you made that face." I felt like it was God's little way of saying yep, Paisley is the name!

They brought Paisley over to me as they were "putting me back together". Such a sweet sweet moment. The first time you see your child. The sweetest thing is that she kept reaching out for me, she eventually grabbed my nose. She just kept making me cry and smile. I was just so happy to see her. Rabu and Paisley went to the nursery to finish cleaning up Paisley. He told the family her name through the glass. They took me back to the Labor and Delivery room to begin recovery. I was feeling great, but really I was pretty drugged up. :)

They finally brought Paisley to me and I got to hold her. We started feeding and she ate like a champ from day one. She has been a great eater since. She is already back to her birth weight in one week!! Praise the Lord!

Later they moved us to our post-partum room, a small one, but we were next on the list for a big room!! Yay, again God's favor on us. By that night we moved into the larger room. Such a blessing because there was room for friends and family to visit and celebrate our new little life.

Lexi came up to the hospital just hours after Paisley was born. She was just happy to see Rabu and I. She got up in bed with me and just cuddled a little bit, said "baby" and then was ready to run around and play. Lexi has warmed up to Paisley little bit and little bit every day. Yesterday, Lexi kissed the baby for the first time, and today when Lexi was going bye-byes she told the baby bye-bye and played with her little foot. She is already an awesome big sister. When the baby cries she looks at me and says, "UP!" She wants me to go get the baby up, she knows that it stops the crying. Also one time she looked at me and said, "Mommy, milk". She knew that was another way to get the baby to stop crying. Lexi is a smarty pants!

The recovery with the C-section has been exponentially better with this one. I was up and walking around pretty good by the second day this time, and I am doing so much more around the house because I am feeling good! God is so faithful.

Mom came and stayed with us for 4 days after we got out of the hospital to help with meals, cleaning and Lexi. She is such a blessing. Friends have been bringing meals and checking in on me daily. We are so blessed to have such a great network of friends that we love and love us!

Our little family has grown from 3 to 4 and it is just an amazing blessing. I cannot imagine our lives without either of our beautiful girls. What an amazing responsiblity to raise two girls to hear God's voice and not listen to the other voices that will try to call them away from the life that God has planned for them. We are so excited to have this opportunity and privilage to parent these girls. God is so Good! You know I am just amazed at how God just fills you with the love that you need to give, but I just feel like I am exploding with love for my family. I keep saying, our family feels good. It just feels right. I am so thankful to God for His blessings to our family.