i heart the 60's

No more point and shoot, and no more borrowing from Lisa, my new new camera is here and new business website is being created.  Wahoo, this one was worth the wait!

yum!

While Mimi was here spoiling us, she took us for a girl's night out to our favorite late night doughnut trailer - Gourdough's. This time the girls got to pick and they wanted ODB - doughnut holes with cream cheese frosting and coconut. YUM! My fave is still the blackout, but we have not tried them all, yet.

Read's fans

We had a great open house the weekend Read was born. He was able to get it started right with lots of spoiling. My Dad (PawPaw) stayed up till 4:30 a.m. the first night home, so Daddy and I could get some sleep. He did not adjust well the first couple of nights (before we knew he was not getting enough milk from me and had lost a pound). Then, Mimi took him at 6. Night 2 Mimi and Aunt Rissa took turns holding him.
We have the feeding and sleeping thing going. He eats about every 3 hours and naps between feedings. He goes to bed after the 10:30 feeding, wakes every 3 hours and is ready for the day around 7:30 a.m.  Open House is still ongoing, we have a guest bed ready for anyone who is in need of an infant fix.

nicknames

The oldest is Landry Loo, L.E. and Sister
Then there is Bella Boo or Boo Boo Bunny and Sissy.
Read is up for debate - Read R. was born on Dec 2nd, so it has been proposed - R2D2 (thanks Jane and Marissa for the inspiration).
I have been calling him Reader and then b/c of the girls - Reader Roo.
We will take feedback, but I have a feeling he will be like the girls with multiple names.

a little smitten

I never thought I could love Ben more, but each time we have a baby I realize I do.
Happy 12th Anniversary, Honey.

violated

On Wednesday morning, I received an e-mail from google that stated I had my same password for a certain amount of time and they recommended I update my password.  I logged into my account and when I pushed enter it said server unavailable.  I thought nothing else of it b/c our server is often unavailable.  The e-mail looked official, google's logo, google's login box, no reason for me to think anything suspicious.  Nope, I was dooped. 
On Thursday morning, I got my first phone call around 9:15 and after that my phone beeped all day - texts and calls. Someone had hacked my e-mail and sent an e-mail to almost all 400 contacts in my google account. Ben instantly reported to google and they shut my account.  He also changed all of his passwords and our facebook passwords.  After an hour of questions from google trying to figure out I was who I said I was, we waited again - 24 hours this time.
On Friday morning, Ben had access to my GMail, but it was wiped clean- email contacts, every email I had saved from the past 7 years, everything in the trash box. sent box, everything cleaned out and my blog was gone.  I just started praying, I could live without my e-mail, I would even create a new e-mail if I had to, but please not my blog.  It was my journal from the past 4 years, everything, my outlet.  After about an hour, Ben was able to retrieve it.  Words cannot describe the gratitude for him working to get it back.
Ben has asked me what I learned, and I will think twice about anything, but I still do not what I would have done differently.  It was not like someone asking me for a password - I thought I was logging into my account.  I am naive I know, but now I just get to be suspicious too.  I hate that the world is so cynical.  I can say I am  very thankful to have had different passwords for different accounts b/c they tried to hack into facebook too.
Please e-mail so I can have your email address too.

got milk?

At Read's first doctor appointment, we found out he had lost over a pound.  I will spare you the details, but we have had to start supplementing him with formula temporarily.  The girls were so excited to be able to feed him his very first bottle, Read was a little excited too. 
He has begun to gain weight and is doing great.  Last night, Mommy and Daddy got to go on a date to celebrate their anniversary. Today Mommy got to run a couple of Christmas errands, thanks to my little helpers and a bottle. 

meeting baby brother

As you can only imagine, the girls are totally smitten with their new baby brother.  LE instantly wanted to cuddle with him, Bell wanted to cuddle with me.  It took her a few minutes, but she decided she was ready to hold him too.  Now, she is all about being the big sister.  She says she is his leader.  She has helped to feed him and has picked out his clothes in the morning.  She will just sit and watch him.  LE likes to sing to him and tell him stories.  There is already an amazing bond that we cannot wait to watch grow.

his own entrance

I was supposed to be induced on December 3rd, but it was pushed back until December 4th. We were hoping my body would kick and I would go into labor on my own. At my appt on the 2nd, I was dilated to a 3, so the dr thought it was possible that labor could kick in. I cramped all day long on the 2nd and I was tears in multiple times b/c I could not tell the difference from the cramping and contractions. That afternoon LE and I were playing Old Maid on my bed and at 4:00 I told Ben he needed to get off work and take over b/c I was miserable. At 5:15, we sat down to dinner and I was again in tears. Ben asked if I wanted to nap or take a walk in hopes to kick into labor or even relieve some of the pain (walking actually helped me more than lying down when it came to the pain). We took our stop watch and started around the neighborhood. My contractions were 4 min and 45 seconds apart, but were only 30 seconds long. Doctor wanted me in at 5 minutes apart and 1 minute long. By the time we finished our bike ride/walk they were 4 minutes apart and 45 seconds long. I called our friend Natalie, who had offered to let the girls stay the night when I was going to be induced and asked if we could still take her up on the offer. She was there within minutes and Mimi and PawPaw were on their way. By the time I got to the hospital at 7:30, the contractions were 3 min. 30 seconds and I was dilated to 6-7, so at that point I accepted I was in labor.
Against my better judgement, I decided to get an epidural. Something kept telling me not to get one, but honestly I was so afraid of labor taking hours and hours, I got one. At first, it was great, I did not feel a single contractions, but then my water broke and the pain was awful. My lower half was tingly numb, but yet I could feel all of the pain of contractions. The anesthesiologist tried to give me another one, but I was too far into the process it had not kicked in before he delivered. When my water broke we discovered he had already had a BM, so they ordered NICU nurses to be there, as a precautionary. Less than 6 hours and 5 pushes our sweet boy was here. At first, he did not cry and they instantly went to work on him to get the meconium from his lungs. It took a few minutes before I could see him, and I needed some extra attention from the delivering doctor. But, when I did it was love at first sight. He is so amazing, he reminds of LE when she was first born.
I will try my hardest post as often as I can, but as you can imagine our world has instantly changed.

today's the day

Hopefully by the time you are reading this, our little one will be here or close to being here.
Many have asked about his name, especially the spelling.
Read - Ben's dad's middle name, Grandmother's maiden name.  His lineage has been traced back to a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Allen - my dad's middle name.

Please be praying for us for the next few days.  I promise to post pics as soon as Motherly possible.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

belly shots

The countdown is on...I will either go into labor this week or he will be induced on Friday morning at 5