She is HERE!!!

Daphne Lanae Monson

April 13, 2009
7:22 am
9 lbs. 12 ounces
20 inches

Her first bath!The girls absolutely adore her! Lucy was so excited to see my baby. I told her she was HER baby too and she couldn't believe it! She was so excited. She keeps referring to her as "my baby." Except for when she fussed a little she said, "Mom, your baby is whining!"
So sweet!
Look at those cheeks and lips!!Mom and Daphne are doing great! She is such a sweet "little" girl! We were shocked with how big she is! But boy do we love her already!!! She has been amazing so far!
The proud Daddy!
Grandma is excited to be here and has been a wonderful help!!
Sadie is absolutely in love! She helped give Daphne her binki and she stopped crying. She was SO proud of herself and we were encouraging her about how great a big sister she is. She almost started crying while beaming from ear to ear. Than today she was just looking at her and said, "I just love her! I love her eyes, her nose, her little hands. I just want to cry when I look at her!" And then she totally snuggled her head into me and was crying! It was SO cute! She was giving her kisses after kisses, and said, "I just want to kiss her all day!" :) I told her that was how I felt with all my girls! She is so sweet and so sensitive to emotions! She has been a great help!
First time cuddling! :)
What a beautiful girl!!! We just love you Daphne!
Here she is in all her glory! So big!
We are so excited to finally have her here with us! We love that she is part of our family! We love you so much sweet Daphne!

Happy Easter!

We are so thankful as we ponder the amazing sacrifice that Christ made for each and every one of us, as we get to anticipate a new life that is possible because of him. We all feel extremely blessed on this beautiful holiday. It brings us comfort and peace knowing this new life will join our family and will be with us forever because of the Savior and all he has done for us. We hope that everyone has a wonderful Easter!

We miss our little ducks that we had for a couple days for the photo shoot. Well, I should say the GIRLS miss the ducks. Chris and I were SO ready to get them back to the store. They sure are messy and stinky! But I will admit they are SO cute!
It was difficult to get Lucy to even look at me! She was so focused on the ducks!

Happy Easter!!

Ready

We have some exciting days ahead of us and boy are we ready! Tonight, Grandma "Stewie" comes, tomorrow is Easter, and the next day the baby comes!!!! It has been a fun chain of events to look forward to!
Yesterday I had my LAST Doctor appointment! I totally forgot I had to do my lab work and pre-register down stairs at the ER - with a C-section you have to do all the pre-operation stuff. It made me start to get emotional a little. It was just all sinking in that she is coming in just a few short days!!! Yeah! So after getting multiple tubes of my blood filled, I got a pretty new bracelet to wear all weekend! What a nice accessory for Easter! :)
As I was registering down stairs, a little girl came in to the ER totally crying! It broke my heart and took everything I had to not cry myself! Especially after I was already feeling emotional. I couldn't even turn around to look at her! The lady checking me in must have noticed my watering eyes and said, "This isn't your first is it?" To which I laughed and said, "No." :) So many emotions!
The girls are getting so giddy about the baby coming. I re-situated all the car seats yesterday in preparation for the baby and Grandmas coming. I had already put the baby's seat base in earlier but not very well and it was loose and slanted. But then I realized I wanted her to be on the other side and Lucy to be in the back with Sadie, at least temporarily so we have a seat for Grandma. So I got those in there and I must say super snug! I am a pro! While I was getting everything adjusted, Lucy kept asking if we were going to get her! Then she scrunched her nose and nodded her head and said, "Next time." She is so cute!
So here are some pictures of her nursery. "She" has no name yet, so sorry I can't refer to her by it! :) I have not hung anything on the walls yet because we need to get a dresser and I don't know if it will change the layout of things. So I don't want to commit yet. My parents bought her a new crib which I love! (It is a dark brown)And her bedding I found at Target a few months back on clearance for $17.50! I HAD to get it! It didn't come with the bed skirt which I was nervous about, but I found it online! Woo Hoo! I guess you can't totally tell by the picture, but it is stripes and circles. And the only thing I hung up is the butterfly mobile from Pottery Barn Kids that I had in Sadie's baby room and I LOVE!!! Lucy has a flower one in her room too!We had white furniture for Sadie and Lucy, so I took the white changing table and took the green from the bedding and painted it that green. It turned out pretty cute. Then the baskets were white so I spray painted them the dark brown and just put the same pink gingham covers back in them. I have never really liked my glider. :( I know! Chris gives me a hard time because we bought a really nice one with nice features, but we went for the one with features and not the one that was cuter. So it is an ugly denim fabric (which has NEVER matched any of the nurseries) and a light oak wood, which hasn't ever matched either. :( You see, Sadie was 6 weeks early and we had JUST moved from CA to TX, so we had nothing! So after I was released from the hospital and she was still in the NICU, we made many trips to Babies R Us. So it was hectic, I was healing from a c-section, and I just felt the need to get the stuff and quickly! Anyway, I have ordered cute fabric to cover the cushions to the chair. I was going to try and re-stain it, but there are too many moving parts and little spindles and stuff. The fabric is a canvas fabric that is the chocolate brown with off-white swirly vine things, you can see it sitting on the ottoman. It's really cute, and I will get to that later! :)For the past 2 weeks I have been painting her room! I have never done a pink room, so I figured no is the time. We chose a really soft pink and I am really happy with it. It took 3 coats and 5 gallons of paint! I am so done with painting! I did really subtle vertical stripes which I love. They are 12 inches wide. So I did the base color with an eggshell finish, and the the stripes are in the same color but a Satin finish (the next step up). It is very subtle and not something you notice until you have been in the room for a little bit. I have never been this prepared for a baby to come. I have everything cleaned, laid out, etc. I have the bassinet down in the guest bedroom, because I can't go upstairs for a week after my c-section, with diapers, wipes, jammies, alcohol swabs...everything! We are set! My bags are packed and we are ready and excited! Besides being ready with everything set up for the baby, my body is ready! Of course I have the aches and pains, but unlike my other pregnancies, my feet are totally swelling! It is disgusting and hilarious! Sorry for my gross feet!A friend and I got together and made some CUTE pacifier clips. She has all the stuff and skills to do it and makes bracelets and stuff, so that was nice! She would start them and I would string them and then she would finish it! It was fun and I enjoyed the challenge of it. It is hard with some to figure out a pattern and to make it the right length. It was fun! My puzzle mind and creative mind enjoyed it! Plus it was fun doing it with a friend. These are the ones we made and I LOVE them all!!!So, sweet little girl...we are so READY for you! All except for a name! :) But soon enough!

A new skill learned

So, I was talking to Chris about a week ago about how he should start working with Sadie on riding her bike without training wheels - she keeps asking and talking about it. So this last weekend he and Sadie went outside to ride. Lucy and I were inside for a little bit. When we came out to join them, they were working on pumping up her tires. The wheels are so small Chris had to use both hands to hold the pump to the valve and Sadie was struggling/using all her strength to slowly pump the tire. It was cute. I jumped in to help and get the job done. Once her tires were more pumped up, Chris told Sadie to hop on. She did. He took the handle bars and basically flung her forward. To my surprise, she took off! Seriously, she just started riding around like a pro! I was in shock. I asked Chris if they had already been practicing while I was inside and he, just as shocked as I was, said no! Crazy girl!! Look at her go!

I love how she is so proud of herself in these pictures!

Even confident enough to look at Mom and smile! Watch where you're going! :)She is so big for this bike! It looks like she belongs in the circus or something on a tiny bike! But we hear it is better for them to learn on. I guess so!Once she stopped, she had a hard time realizing that she can't just start pedaling and not tip over. But once she understood how to push herself a little with her feet and then hurry and start to pedal, she totally got it! Seriously, I can't believe how easily she caught on. She of course wanted to keep riding her bike all day long and all day today! She is a pro now! Yeah Sadie! Thumbs up!Lucy is SO proud of her big sister!

Mama Bird and Baby Bird

Yesterday my friends Sheila and Lyndsee threw me a Baby Shower. It was so much fun and SO cute! Sheila is like me when it comes to throwing parties...it's a fun way to express your creativity! ;) And it makes it oh so cute! (Which we couldn't say "cute" or "awww" for one of the games at the shower or else someone could take your clothespin! Mine got taken away within the first 5 minutes and then I was FREE - I am not good at that!)

My sweet sister Tricia was originally going to come out here and throw me a Baby Shower, but she decided to go to Disneyland twice and to the Roatan Islands! Sheesh, where are her priorities! :) Just kidding Tricia...you are the best and I love you! Instead, she made the cutest invitations and sent those out! Notice the cute little bird paper along the top. The shower had a bird/garden theme! So cute!Since you can't really read it, it says:

Please join us for a

Baby Shower Luncheon

Honoring

Lanae Monson

She will soon add a little Birdie to her Nest.

On Saturday, April 4th

beginning at 1 o'clock pm

at the Mott Residence

If you want to help the parents to be

instead of a gift, a package of

diapers will bring them Glee!

Since this is our 3rd girl, we don't really need much; so I just figured we DO need diapers. But of course, I have the nicest friends and I still got lots of other things as well! And of course TONS of diapers which we are so excited about! (What true parents we are, when we are excited about diapers!)

This is the walk up to the door. Sheila and I had made these for Sadie's Tea Party last year and we both absolutely LOVE them. I love how whimsical they are. They set such a cute atmosphere for things! I know I will be re-using these a lot in the future! I LOVE them!Here is when you first walked in to Sheila's house; with the present table, and the party favor table. We made cute little flower hair-things and wrapped them around little boxes of robin eggs.I made these little birdies the night before the shower. Sheila had looked everywhere for some cute little birds like this and could not find anything. So I got some felt and stuffing and little wooden dowels and...wah la. I was eager to make them because Lucy's room is birds and bird houses so I could use them for her room afterwards. They turned our really cute! Also, Sheila had planned on growing wheat grass and totally forgot until it was too late! She was so sad! But this worked just as well! :)More views of all the cute decorations! She even had the pom pom things in the bathroom! Notice my BEAUTIFUL maternity pictures around! Yeah Chris!! :) I was so proud to say that Chris took them when people asked!

See the cute clothes line, Sheila made me two adorable pillow case dresses! She has made some for Sadie and Lucy in the past and I LOVE them! The pot of flowers on the table are the pens for the games! So many cute little touches that required a lot of effort!!

And of course the food table! Everything was so delicious and so cute with so many little touches of birds and birdhouses everywhere!

This is the "game" table with the prizes and different stuff needed for the games. Sheila made TWO beautiful diaper cakes! Aren't they amazing!?! We played a game where there were melted candy bars in diapers and people had to guess what kind of candy bar it was! GROSS and hilarious! Also, had a little plastic baby in an ice cube and whoever got the baby out of the ice cube first ("their water broke") would win. Also, the game I mentioned earlier that I was horrible at with not saying "cute" and "awww!"

Then it was time to open presents!!!

It was a PERFECT shower! We all had so much fun! I have the best friends ever! Thank you Sheila and Lyndsee for doing such an AMAZING job! And thank you to those that came and made it so much fun! :)

Waiting

We are ALL getting impatient! We want to see our sweet little girl and we want to see her soon! We officially have just about a week and a half to wait. But if she wants to come sooner, we won't complain! Although, I would like to finish painting her room before she gets here!

It has taken me a lot longer than I expected! It has consumed a lot of my time and energy. I am getting sick of making trips back and forth to Home Depot! I finished my 3 coats of paint (4 gallons!) and am now working on taping off the stripes. But tonight I ran out of painters tape! UGH! Another trip to Home Depot tomorrow, won't the girls be excited! :) I am anxious to see it finished! And to be able to remove all the tarps and tape. Right now it is just a mess. Hmmmm, kind of like me! I am a mess and am anxious to see the the end results of the project my BODY has been working on for 9 months!

SO much to look forward to!!