Little Dude.

Friday afternoon.

Cole started smiling today while he was sleeping and so I took out my camera, hoping to catch a few. Piper felt left out, so she grabbed her sock monkey and I turned the camera to her. I asked her to give me a funny face and this was what she did..





And here are some of the ones of Cole!

Life lately..

Little smirk.

Proud to have a little brother

Big sister

2/2/2012.

Our third baby was coming and on Feb 1st, 2012 I was walking around Michael's Craft Store when I started to get some strong contractions. I stopped while looking in the bead section and recognized the fact that these contractions were a little longer and stronger than normal. Suddenly, I was scared and thought, what if I go into labor sitting here in Michael's, looking at beads!! ha! I quickly checked out and drove home with mixed feelings about being excited and scared at the same time.
That night, I paced my apartment like a mad woman for 4 hours as the contractions continued to get longer and stronger. I knew that no matter what, I was going to have this baby either tonight or tomorrow. Around midnight, we decided to play it safe and go to the hospital, even though my contractions weren't as intense as my last two pregnancies/labors had been.
After arriving at the hospital, the OB resident looked skeptical and was going to send us home, even though I was dilated to a 4. After an hour more of walking around, she decided to keep us since I was now a 5.
My whole perception of this delivery was wrong. Before, I had been really worried that I would go into labor and this little guy would come pretty quickly, since it was my 3rd baby and since my other two had been pretty quick deliveries (one I pushed for about 50 min and the other 15 min). Boy, was I wrong. ha! After over 20 hours of labor and 2 real epidurals (one doctor tried over 10 times, giving me a spinal tap that later gave me the worst headache of my life), I finally pushed 3 times and delivered a 7 lb. 11 oz, 19 1/2 inch long baby boy at 12:16pm, on 2/2/2012. I was completely exhausted from being in labor for so long, and for not eating forever, plus the first epidural had come out and stopped working right before the peak of my final, most painful contractions, which didn't help. But, after he came out, it was all worth it. :)
We have had a hard time picking a name for this little guy and finally decided in the hospital, that Cole Jackson McDaniel was the one. Welcome to the world Cole.

I never thought this day would come..

No, I haven't had my baby yet. :( But, we did get a new car today! I never thought it would be a mini van, though. I have never wanted to be a minivan mom, but today things changed. Long story short, we saw the van on Monday, in which case we found out the man was moving overseas on Thursday and had to sell it by Tuesday, so since we were in the market for a larger car anyways before our little guy came, we decided that it was perfect for our needs and bought it on Tuesday & picked it up today! Whew!! It was a little crazy. And, I have to say,...I kind of like it. Not just because we got an amazing deal on it, since he was running out of time (sad to say), but also because it is pretty much like brand new and has really low miles! YEAH!! And since I am married to a man that has bought and sold cars most of his life, I am thinking I can live with this for now, because I know we can sell it again in a couple of years! ha!
Anyways, here it is. Please ignore the fat pregnant lady in front. And the fact that it is white. Not my favorite color. Oh well, it has heated seats. :)

I am now a member of the "big-bummed mini's", as I call them.
P.S. I am really sad not to have Utah plates anymore..I have snuck by with them until this day, without any hassle from the police...hush hush.

Halloween Hoopla!

Here are some quick pictures from our ward Halloween party last weekend! Gabe is Strawberry Shortcake, Piper is an owl and I am my Mom. haha! j/k. I am Frankenstein's wife! Only about 14 more weeks to go!!




(I swear I have the cutest kids. ha!)

Hillview Farms!

Yesterday we went apple picking and had a fun time at the Hillview Farms! The apples we got are so crisp and delicious! I am so excited to start making yummy apple toffee dip again!! Yeah, for fall!

Gettysburg and Washington DC!

P.S. This post contains a lot of pictures! (Most of these are all right from the camera to the computer, so sorry if they are shadowy..)




























Onto Washington DC-

This was the mouth of a REAL shark!!

Ren's favorite part of the parade.

The "ahh" faces.

(Hyrum, Utah?)

Happy 4th of July!

Part of the parade

Air and Space Museum

The Korean Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam wall memorial

"Fords Theater"

The white house from the front

The back of the white house

Sorry it has been so long since my last blog post! We made an impromptu trip to Washington DC over the 4th of July weekend! Along the way, we stopped in Gettysburg and were lucky enough to see the re-enactment getting ready to take place! It was only for the 4th of July weekend and we just so happened to stop during that time! It was pretty cool. After driving by all the memorials and getting some yummy local peaches, we headed onto Washington DC and spent the rest of Sat, Sunday and Monday there exploring! We were seriously so pooped everyday from so much walking and from all the crowds! It was so crazy and people were everywhere. We tried to go into a couple of museums, but found it almost impossible to maneuver a stroller with so many people everywhere. It was still a fun trip, but I think next time, we won't go over a holiday weekend. :)
We also got to see the 4th of July parade there, that we soon realized was a HUGE deal. People were all staking out their spots, like usual, to get a good look at the action. We found a good spot that let me sit down with the kids, letting them still see the parade. After staking our spot out with other families around us for a while, the parade started and suddenly, 3 Oriental people and an elderly Indian woman and man jumped in front of all of us. I was seriously so baffled and mad that they would be so incredibly pushy and push their way in front of everyone, including the kids who then couldn't see. I was so mad and should probably just forget it, but I couldn't believe how rude these people were. So, we all tried to see the parade about 2 inches from the pushy people's heads, all the while getting rammed with the Indian woman's chair that she was squeezing into the space next to me. It was all pretty funny, actually.
And, to end the trip on a good note, we didn't get caught in any traffic coming back!! Yeah!