Twins??

I sure don't remember having twins... But they sure look like it!! See if you can guess which is which:

Ok the hair is a definite give away, but if you couldn't tell the top is Aspen and bottom Hunter!

Easter and more

I think I am just destined for long posts... or maybe I should just stop waiting so long in between posts, anyways sorry here's another big one! All my pictures are backwards too, but since there are so many I wasn't going to even attempt to fix them, so here they are:

One of Hunter's favorite sayings is "Mom, what doing mom?" It was way cute at first but has gotten really old really fast, he says it probably at least 20 times a day. He will ask us anytime he gets bored, so it could have been a few seconds ago that he asked, he's the worst about it in the car. At least one of the times he asked me he did this cute pose too!!

We went to Kanab for Easter weekend, which also happened to be the weekend they moved my Grandma to the nursing home there. This was Hunter's entertainment at one of our visits.

He needed a turn to ride too! So silly!

Easter egg hunt at Ben's parents. They saved some eggs for him so he got to have a very long Easter this year. He had the egg hunt at the Kanab park on Saturday, then at my parents Easter morning, then at Ben's parents Monday night. He loved it!!

He was playing outside at my parents then all of a sudden came running screaming into the house. As far as we can tell by what he's telling us it sounds like he fell of the slide and hit his face. We aren't really sure though cuz I had looked out at him like a minute before this happened and he was already headed back to the house from the slide not screaming, so who knows. His eye got much worse looking after a few days, this was the night it happened.

His Easter egg hunt at my parents.

Finding his basket.

He found Aspen's basket first and instead of finding his, he got everything out and showed it all to her before he would go looking for his! What a sweet big brother!

Waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to get up so that he could do his egg and basket hunt, does he look excited or what!

His hands after dyeing eggs. He didn't want a picture, he just wanted to wash his hands!

Cheese! I found a really cool dye set this year, it was little rollers and a paint tray, so we had the regular dye and would also roll on other colors with the rollers. He has one in his hand, he thought that was pretty fun.

The whole crew dyeing eggs. Grandma and Grandpa Crosby just came over to say Hi, they had perfect timing we had just started dyeing the eggs. Grandpa though Hunter was so funny, he just kept laughing the whole time! And thank goodness for Grandma, Aspen of course decided she needed in on the action and all of our hands were already covered in dye!

Dyeing the eggs before using the rollers.

All his eggs that he got at Kanab's Easter egg hunt! I didn't realize that he had done so good until we were leaving and heard a couple kids say they only got 1 or 2. It kind of made me feel bad. The day before the egg hunt I had told Ben that I didn't know if Hunter would even know what to do, so apparently when he was trying to get him to sleep and during breakfast in the morning he was getting him all prepped for it.... He told him to go get all the eggs he could find, not to stop, and even if another kid was going to grab the egg to still go get it faster, and Hunter totally listened! I was so embarrassed cuz I was in there with him trying to get him to leave some of the eggs there for the other kids and he's grabbing them and running to the next, now I know why! (Ben was proud.)

Grandpa and Dad watching from outside the tennis courts.

Showing me his basket and eggs, it was SO cold!

Waiting outside the door to go in the tennis courts for the egg hunt. He was second in line and there was an egg right inside the door that he kept telling us was his egg and we kept reminding him he couldn't take it yet. Well when they finally said go some of the older kids started rushing up to the softball fields right by the tennis courts for their hunt and Hunter started following them! So he ended up being one of the last ones in because of it and another kid was already picking up "his" egg by the time he turned back around. I was very proud he didn't yell at him or anything just moved on to find another egg (I guess this was part of Ben's advise to, if someone got an egg to hurry to the next one!)

Hunter "helped" me change the battery in my scale a few weeks ago and all of a sudden decided it needed to be changed again. So he went and found a battery and brought it in to the bathroom, when we told him no to go put it back he got distracted by the movie we had on. We were all watching it and all of a sudden he kind of whimpered and said "Ow, this hurts!" I knew exactly what had happened and could not stop laughing to tell Ben what was going on! Ben tried to get him to put his tongue on the battery again and the smart boy wouldn't!

Aspen's first bath, she didn't love it. She likes it a lot more know, and I must say she looks quite a bit bigger than this already!

Hunter loves his sister and we love these two cute kids!!

New, New, New

(Sorry about the spacing on this it looked normal when typing it but for some weird reason when I posted it there are big random gaps in between lines.) Where to begin... I have so many new things to post about! These all should have been separate posts but I'm slacking. So here we go:

It's a Girl!!

First things first, I'm sure you all have either heard or guessed that we had our baby. We ended up having Aspen Malee (pronounced m-a-lee or M'lee) on April 1st. It took us forever to pick her middle name, but finally came up with that cuz my initials are MLE so it's that just spelled out. At my 37 week check up everything was pretty much the same... so my doctor decided it would be better for her to stay in there for a while longer. When he said that me and Ben looked at each other with "you've got to be kidding" looks on our faces. And on the drive home I did even cry a little (just a few tears), I couldn't help it. I set up my 38 week appointment for the 29th and figured even if he ended up telling us we could be started since it was that close to April I was going to wait a couple more days and get my April birthday that I wanted. I didn't want her to be born on April Fool's so I decided we would have her on Monday April 4th cuz I figured they probably wouldn't start me over the weekend. After another week of bed rest I came to my senses and listened to Ben's telling me to have her on April 1st. That would get me my April birthday, Ben wouldn't have to take off as much time since it was on a Friday, and it was conference weekend so we would have just been sitting around anyways! On our 38 week check up our doctor looked at us and said so are you ready to be started (duh!!!) we told him our plans and he got us set up to be induced on Friday!

Friday came and at 6:00 a.m. we got called in to the hospital. Once my mom got her to be with Hunter we headed right over. They got me all hooked up and started the pitocin at about 8:00 a.m. (so far pretty much exactly like how it happened with Hunter) I already knew that I was probably going to get the epidural cuz I had a mole that he said he would remove after I had the baby if I wanted. With Hunter I was terrified of the epidural so I was in labor for 10 hours before I finally got it, with Aspen since I knew I was getting it I got it a lot sooner. I still waited a while cuz with Hunter since I was that far along and in that much pain I didn't feel a thing and then I was still able to kind of move my legs since I only had it for 2 hours, it was great! Not the case this time. I gave in after about 5-6 hours and decided to get it. It killed!!! The numbing that he did before starting the epidural didn't hit the right spot or something cuz I could feel it, and since I'm so short he was having a hard time finding the right spot so he was moving the needle all around in my back. Since I could feel the pain and he wasn't finding the spot he took it out, did another shot of numbing stuff and started again, I could still feel it but not anywhere near like the first try. Then we didn't have her until 6:30 so I had the epidural for a lot longer so I couldn't move my legs at all. And it took several hours to wear off, last time was only about an hour before I was back to normal. So I didn't love the epidural this time, definitely nice not to have the pain of the contractions, but I will for sure wait longer next time so hopefully it can be more like it was with Hunter.

Another thing that was different with Aspen was the after birth cramps, wow!! I didn't have those at all with Hunter and I kept thinking the nurses were being so weird for asking if I needed medicine for pain, now I know why!

With Hunter I felt pretty crappy after having him and it took about a week before I felt like I could move normal. I had an episiotomy with him, but didn't need it with Aspen, so I felt great! I walked out of the hospital, no wheelchair for me! So all in all I would take Hunter's labor and delivery and Aspen's recovery, funny how different it can be!

New Computer!

Last Saturday I was trying to get on our home computer to work (I had borrowed my mom's laptop while I was on bed rest) and we found that it had a ton of virus's on it.... So we got us a new computer! We have been wanting and needing one for a while but I just couldn't justify it when I could use our old one. This has been well worth it! It is a lot faster so I am able to get more work done! I love it!!

Trail Blazer!

The day before we had Aspen we sold our Jeep. So we were down to our 2 door Toyota Celica... Not so fun with 2 car seats. Also Aspen's car seat is bigger than Hunter's was so my seat didn't fully lock into place with her in there. We made it work though. We had been looking for a new SUV for probably a few months and last Saturday (the first thing Ben did with our new computer was get on KSL to look for a vehicle) we saw an awesome deal and it was even in St. George instead of Salt Lake, we thought it was too good to be true! We couldn't get ahold of the guy selling it at first so we thought he had for sure already sold it, then he finally e-mailed back and said that he would try to call us the next day so we could come test drive it! So Sunday afternoon we borrowed Ben's parents car (We managed to pop our tire on our car when Ben was coming home from his meetings to get me and the kids for church, so Monday we had to get a new tire too, that wasn't a fun new like the rest of our new things) and headed to St. George. It was perfect! I have to be honest, I'm in love with it!!! We finally got everything worked out for a loan and we got to pick up our new Trail Blazer on Thursday! I have to say Paul and Jaylene you guys have excellent taste in vehicles!

Lots of Leaks

This story is too funny not to share. A few days ago Hunter had woken in the middle of the night and ended up in our bed. After Ben went to work he snuggled next to me instead... Next thing I new I was wet. He had leaked through his diaper and it was getting all over me! I got him changed into dry diaper and dry PJ's, then Aspen woke up ready to eat. I sat down to nurse her (I was out and ready) and realized she had done the same thing!! So I just set her down on got her changed and everything. Well remember how I said I was out and ready... After I got her dressed I realized my lap was all wet too, I had leaked milk all over myself! After I got her fed me and Hunter went and had breakfast even though it was way earlier than usual since changing him fully woke him up. After breakfast me and him went to take a shower, he was in the bathroom taking his clothes off while I was getting us clean clothes. Then I hear him say look mom I peed, we always have him try to go to the bathroom before he takes his bath so I thought that's what he did. Nope, he had peed on the bathroom rug! He's never done that before, so I was quite shocked! We had lots of laundry that day!!

Now the moment I'm sure you have all been waiting for.... Pictures of our cute little girl!

Aspen Malee Ewell 6 lbs 11 oz 19 inches long

Her first bath at the hospital

Ready to go home!

Her first ride in the car

Hunter getting to meet his new sister for the first time.

Taking a nap with Dad

This is what I found when I got out of the shower, and no Hunter didn't do it.

She loves her hands by her head

And that cute big brother that we love!

Funny Baby!

We had another check this Wednesday and everything is still looking good. I was dilated to a 2 and 65% effaced. I think I was either a 2 or 3 and 70% effaced when they started me with Hunter, so I figured I was doing pretty good! My doctor was out of town for spring break so his PA (I think that's what she is) did the check, but nobody knew for sure what his plans were as far as starting me. He had told me several weeks ago that if we got to 37 weeks he would probably start me, and I will be 37 weeks on Monday so it could be soon! Our ultrasound was so funny! The baby had it's legs crossed and was bent in half! I took a pic of my pic of the ultrasound so hopefully you can tell. The pic is a profile of the baby and you can see it's little toes touching it's forehead! I was trying hard not to laugh so I wouldn't bounce her equipment around but I couldn't help it! Here's the pic see if you can tell:

I'm Ready!

It's official I'm ready! It's been 3 1/2 weeks since they put me on bed rest and I have been doing pretty good at staying down. I think I've had enough though! I'm in a nesting mood but I'm not supposed to get up how is that supposed to work! I have been able to get some of the stuff done, with the help of family of course! I finally got my vinyl put on my wall (with the help of my little sister) and finally got our family pictures on the wall (Ben hung them after me and Kira decided where to put them) and we finally got our TV put on the desk (Ben's brother came and helped with that) I LOVE how my living room looks now! The saddest part is that I have had the desk for about a year, we got the pictures done in August, and the vinyl has been ready somewhere in between those two! I was really stressed that we weren't going to get the family pictures up til after the baby came and by the time I actually did it, we may have new pictures! So luckily I have my family that helped me do it cuz if I waited for me to do it on my own it might never have happened!

We had another weekly doctors appt on Wednesday. I now have them set at times that Ben can come with me since we aren't having to work around my work schedule anymore. And can I say I'm and so glad! They ended up checking me a week early! I would hate to have one of those visits without him! It seems like ever time I go in now they end up doing something extra to me, we had the same ultrasound, stress test, and listening to the heart beat that they did last week. Then they also did a strep test (which they didn't have me do with Hunter, yuck!) and he checked me and I'm pretty sure he stripped my membranes. He didn't say but I have never had a check hurt, it's just always uncomfortable, but this time it KILLED! I kept bringing my hand up to slap the doctor away but managed to control myself, that would have been pretty embarrassing if I ended up hitting him :) All in all everything is still going pretty good, my blood pressure was high again when I got there but they had me lay down and it was even lower than it ever has been lately! And there is plenty of fluid for the baby, and the stress test has showed the baby is doing great both weeks! Now it's just getting me through the next 2 weeks or so! Ben has had to tell me to go lay down several times in the last couple days! The warmer weather has finally started to get my feet to swell a little bit (no where near what they were with Hunter! I didn't have ankles!) so probably the worst time that I could stop being good about laying down! We will make it though, just a little longer then we will have our baby. YAY!

It has taken me the entire pregnancy to finally pick a car seat. We were in our accident with the one we had for Hunter and you aren't supposed to use them once they have been in an accident, Hunter only had a little longer til he was going to be in an upright car seat so we still used it for him. And it was totally a boy car seat anyways, so I had to find a car seat that would work for either!

Hunter has decided it's his new seat! He keeps sitting in it and I keep reminding him that it's the babies so hopefully he won't get sad when there is someone else sitting in it!

The box that it came in is also his! He has been so funny with it, he put a ton of toys in it, a huge blanket, and a pillow and still managed to squeeze in there with everything! It has also become a slide cuz when he gets on top it bends in and he slides on down!

And here is the scary monster! He is so funny!

Anniversaries

So someone asked us what Temples we had gone to for our anniversaries and it took both of us some thinking to finally tell them the whole list. So I figured even though I can't find the pics right now I will at least write them all down so we can remember them!

1st anniversary was the Las Vegas Temple

2nd anniversary was the Jordan River Temple

3rd anniversary was the Idaho Falls Temple

4th anniversary was the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

5th anniversary was the Draper Temple

6th anniversary was the Manti Temple

We have also been to the St. George (of course), Salt Lake, and Mesa Temples together. Ben has also been to the Provo temple and I'm pretty sure he has seen the Hawaii temple when he went on vacation there right a few months after his mission. We both love to go and visit the new temples and get to see how beautiful they are! Hopefully some day we will get to venture to ones further away but for now we are just lucky there are so many close by so that we have been able to keep our tradition going!

We never get each other anything for our anniversary or for Valentine's Day, but this year I got some really pretty flowers from Ben for Valentine's Day! This is only his 3rd time getting me flowers! The first time was my first birthday after we got married, the second time was our 3rd anniversary cuz he was in Montana on the actual day so he had his friend bring some to my work. And then he did this year and as far as I know it was for no certain reason at all! How I got them was too funny not to tell everyone. I happened to have the 14th off, so I was just laying on the bed reading my book when Ben got home from work at 3:30. I heard the garage open then heard thump, thump, thump, and of course was wondering what in the world he was doing, he knows Hunter is napping at this time. Then I hear Hunter's door fly open and the thumping continued as Hunter ran through the house to find Ben. The thumping had been Hunter running from his bed! He was so excited to see his dad that somehow the garage opening woke him up! I had told him we were going to go swimming when he woke up from his nap so I guess he was just too excited to go! Hunter gets to Ben and I hear Ben tell him to bring me something. Hunter comes running in my room and throws a dozen roses at me! (They were still in the plastic wrap so they stayed together.) It was so funny and unexpected! Ben must have been paying attention when we went to get flowers for his brothers girlfriend (the brother on a mission, it was so fun getting to take flowers to her!) cuz he got ones just like the ones I had said I loved when we were picking some out for her! He claims he doesn't know what I'm talking about though.

We went out to eat, and then went swimming at the community center that night. It was so fun! And Ben even took Hunter down the big hydratube. I was in changing into my clothes so we could go home and didn't even know they had opened the tube cuz it hadn't been running when we got there. I wish I would have known so I could take a pic when they came out, but knowing me I would have told Ben not to take Hunter on it if I had known. I get really stressed out about Hunter not being big enough yet, but Ben said he loved it and kept asking for more so I'm glad he took him!

Bed Rest

I guess the word is out... yep I'm on bed rest :( It all started on our anniversary weekend, which is Feb 12th. We have been married for 6 years now!! It's crazy how time flies! I had planned on doing a cute post showing pictures of all the different temples we have gone to for our anniversaries (our tradition is to go to a new one for each anniversary), but since I got put on bed rest I can't really go searching for all those pics anymore. Anyways we went up to Manti for our anniversary, we have both seen the outside of the temple but not the inside so we figured we could still count it as a new one. Kira is going to college at Snow, so like 5-10 min away so we got to go visit her and see her apartment and everything. Friday we went to dinner and a movie up there, then planned on going to the temple Saturday morning and heading home. Well when we woke up Saturday I was feeling really funny and was kind of shaky. I took a shower I started getting ready thinking it was just cause I hadn't eaten yet. But I still didn't feel right even after eating. Also every time I bent over I would get a sharp pain in my head. So we ended up not going in the temple, we just walked around the outside and took some pics then headed home. Even just the little walk around the temple had me pretty winded. I already had my regular doctor appt set for Wednesday so I figured I would just take it easy til then and hope it went away. It didn't. Wednesday came around and I was getting ready for the appt (having to sit down in between shower, blow drying hair, etc.) and my sister called and one of her kids was throwing up so I decided I would rather not risk getting Hunter sick so made some calls and couldn't get ahold of anyone to watch Hunter. So I called the doctors office and rescheduled for the next Wednesday, then asked about the head pains I was getting. The nurse told me that no matter what time I ended up being able to come I needed to be seen that day and they would just work me in whenever I could find a babysitter.
If that doesn't put you in a panic I don't know what does! Luckily just a few minutes after that my sister in law called me back and let me bring Hunter right over. (Thanks so much!) I headed over and was actually only about 20 min after my scheduled time! On my way over my friend that had told me to go to this doctor called and said that she was being started the next day cuz her blood pressure was a little high and I think also that the baby wasn't growing as much which had happened with her first. She also said that she had been getting headaches because of the blood pressure. I new right then that that was probably what was going on with me and I was probably going on bed rest.
I had barely had time to sit down before they called me back for my appointment, I hadn't even had time to calm my huffing and puffing from going up the stairs to their office! They checked my blood pressure and it was 151 over 114. The nurse looked dumb founded when she looked at the monitor and she stared at it for a minute before she finally wrote the numbers down. I think she couldn't believe it was that high. She then said wow your blood pressure is really high! Then walks me back to a room and my doctor happened to be about to walk in a room and saw us coming so to be nice said how are you. I of course just say I'm fine and his nurse looks at him shoves my chart at him and says except for really high blood pressure. He just looked at it and said ya that is a little high but didn't really seem all the concerned. Then we round the corner and there is his nurse practitioner and several other workers and they all stare at me as I walk by like I'm about to drop dead any minute. After asking me a whole bunch of extra questions they have me lay down on the bed til the doctor came in and took my blood pressure again. It had gone down some from laying so that was good, but just to make sure nothing else was going on he had me get more blood work done right after my appt (which all came back good) and then I had to come back the next day for an ultrasound (the baby was still growing good and by the measurements are guessing that it weighed about 5 1/2 lbs) and also had to get some steroid shots to help the babies lungs develop in case we have to deliver early. They had to do 2 shots 24 hours apart and I got the first on Thursday after my ultrasound. When I went in on Friday thinking I was just getting the shot and then going home, his nurse checked my blood pressure 3 times (once on her machine, then once manually, and once again after she had me lay down for a little bit.) It was still kind of high so she called the doctor and he had me go over to labor and delivery to be monitored.
Again totally panicked me. She didn't tell me why I was going over there really she just came back in the room from calling the doctor and said he wanted me to go to labor and delivery and she would walk me over there (there building is connected to the hospital) so she picked up my purse and started walking. Well by this time it was like 3:00 and I knew Ben was leaving to go on a scout camp out sometime between 3:00 and 3:30, so I panicked and called him before I even really knew why I was there and I'm sure I panicked him too. It turned out they just had me sit on the monitors for about an hour and a half and my blood pressure kept going down so they sent me home to be on bed rest again. My friend who is due a week before me happened to text me to see how I was doing right after I hung up with Ben and she happened to be a couple blocks away so she came and sat with me for most of the time I was there, then right as she was needing to leave my sister showed up to be with me. So I never had to be alone which was exactly we I had panicked and called Ben.
So after all of that craziness, I am on bed rest. And by bed rest they mean bed rest, they want me laying down as much as I possibly can, not sitting up, and not laying on my back. Can I just tell you it was very interesting to type while lying on my side, I've have flopped back and forth like 10 times while typing this. And your back sure starts hurting after so much time on your sides! I ended up getting sick with a cold over the weekend, so the first several days all I wanted to do was lay down so those days were pretty easy! I'm still a little stuffy but feeling a lot better to where I start doing something sitting up and then remember and lay back down. I still do feel the effects of the high blood pressure if I do too much, so it really hasn't been too bad being stuck laying down.
They are having me start my one week appts now, so I saw the doctor again on this Wednesday and my blood pressure seems to be staying stable enough to keep up with the bed rest, so he is hoping we will be able to go 4 more weeks before having the baby, so that hopefully we won't have to visit the NICU at all. Since everyone has been asking me, I don't have toxemia, just high blood pressure. The high blood pressure could cause things like the placenta separating, my blood not clotting right, and stuff like that, which would all result in loosing the baby, so I am trying really hard to stay laying down even when I'm feeling just fine! So far it has been working pretty good, Hunter and me just watch lots of movies in the morning and then Ben is home before Hunter wakes up from his nap. So we are doing pretty good, I just feel bad for Ben. I don't know how well I would take it if I was doing everything around the house while he just laid around. :) He hasn't ever complained and he has been really good about trying to keep the house picked up all the time... So if anyway is needing help around the house just tell your husband you are on bed rest ;) Just kidding! It has just made me love him that much more, he hasn't ever said a word about any of it, he's even been really nice about the things he knows I'm picky about he will ask how I do it. Whenever Ben and Hunter would be going anywhere at first Hunter would tell me to go get my shoes on, know he just knows that mom is "sleeping." Although I can't really sleep, the times that I have fallen asleep he jumps on me and says "doing mom?" It's so cute. He has also gotten really snuggly and kissy with me lately which I will take all that I can get! Oh and we still don't know what we are having, she only really measured the head and the tummy when I got my ultrasound, I never even saw the legs. I think that's all the questions people have asked us... Thanks so much to all of you who have called or come by we really do appreciate it!!