Newest Member of the Family...

Elsie met her new sister for the first time last night. We're now a family of four...

Elsie wanted to carry Alice around...

Hopefully Alice likes kisses because I have a feeling that she's going to be getting A LOT of them - especially once we're home and she's lying helplessly on the floor...

She's Finally Here!

At 3:38 PM, January 28th, Alice Dorothy Swenson finally decided to come out. She weighs 8lbs 1.8oz and is 20 inches long (or tall if she knew how to stand...) I'll let Sarah post all of the exciting details of the birth when she feels up to it, but for now here are some pictures of Alice here in the hospital.

Operation Baby is a go

We got a call from the hospital earlier today saying that I am the first one on the induction list and would I please be at the hospital by 7am to get things going. This is it, the baby's really coming out. Elsie is in bed, the apartment is cleaned up, the laundry is done and folded, the bags are packed, the dishes are clean, Grandma and Grandpa are ready to take Elsie in the morning...

I think we're ready to have this kid.

Free Zelda

That is what Alan's brothers have named my unborn child. Oh well, might as well go with the flow. Whether she likes it or not, Baby Zelda will be coming out on Friday. Even though the placenta isn't a previa anymore, it is still low lying enough that they want to keep a close eye on it during labor. If she doesn't make an appearance earlier in the week, I will be induced on the 28th.

I must just be one of those women who are in "pre-labor" or "early labor" forever. I've been having contractions on a semi-regular basis for over two weeks. I was dilated to almost a 4 at my last doctors appointment on Tuesday and the baby has dropped so much that I feel like this kid could fall out any second. Yet still no baby. 5 more days, 5 more days...

Jungle Jim's

Before Craig, Katie, and Lucas left, we took the kids to "Jungle Jim's". It was sort of like a mini amusement park for little kids. We had a buy one get one free admission, so it was only $3 a kid. Not bad. We almost had the place to ourselves; we were able to have one of the workers follow us around and run the rides that Elsie and Lucas wanted to go on.

Alan calls Elsie his little "roller coaster girl". She really loved the roller coaster. She would have ridden it all night if we would have let her. Unfortunately, Lucas didn't enjoy it quite as much as she did, so we didn't ride it a whole lot.

Alan and Craig went on this ride with Elsie and Lucas the first time, and then promptly decided they were big enough to ride by themselves. I think they just didn't want to try and squeeze into the little cars again.

The kids had a good time. Elsie loved all the rides, and Lucas enjoyed them too as long as he could ride with Elsie. He didn't like riding on them with Craig as much. It was a fun evening. Here's a little clip of the roller coaster just to show how fast it was going.

Elsie and Lucas

Elsie and Lucas, Lucas and Elsie. These two had so much fun playing together over the Christmas break. They are only 7 weeks apart in age, so they are pretty evenly matched. They were quite the partners in crime, getting in to everything and looking too dang cute while they did.

"Ready, set, go!"

Elsie is faster than Lucas, so she would always win when they were racing. But Lucas would get even. He's heavier than Elsie, so he would tackle her and she wouldn't be able to get up.

We always found them in the bathtub together fully dressed playing with all the bath toys.

Ring around the Rosie is a good way to while away the time when waiting to see Santa

Yep, these two sure had a good time together.

3 Years

As part of my Christmas present this year, Alan surprised me with a sleepover for Elsie at Grandma's house and a night away at a secret place for us for our anniversary. On the 29th, we dropped Elsie off at Grandma and Grandpa's house, went and saw a movie (Narnia #3), went out to dinner (The Cheesecake Factory), then Alan took me to a little place called the Anniversary Inn. My first night away from Elsie was nice enough, but this place was pretty awesome. Alan had reserved the Bridal Veil Falls suite, which was fitting because we sort of had our first date at Bridal Veil Falls (the details are a little sketchy as to whether or not it was actually a "date").

Anyway, the room was pretty awesome. We arrived to chilled sparkling cider and cheesecake and had breakfast delivered to our door in the morning. The shower was a waterfall, and we didn't have to wake up at 7am with Elsie. This was defiantly my favorite Christmas present.

Unexpected News

I went into my lovely Obgyn yesterday. I had my regular appointment and another ultrasound. The ultrasound was to check the position of the placenta again in kind of a last ditch effort to see if it had moved out of the way. And guess what... IT MOVED!! Even my doctor was astonished. He said he has never seen a placenta previa correct itself this late in a pregnancy. It is still low lying, so it is something to be mindful of when I go into labor, but it won't stop me from having a normal vaginal birth. No C-section!!

We still have the 28th down as baby day, just instead of a scheduled C-section it will be an induction. I'm already dilated to 2cm and having irregular contractions. I sometimes hate it when my doctor gets my hopes up, but since I went into labor early naturally with Elsie, he's doubtful I'll make it to the 28th. We'll just have to see I guess. Either way, we're having another baby in a few weeks!

Temple Square

The day after Christmas we headed up to Temple Square to look at all the lights. We rode the Trax into town and Elsie thought it was pretty cool.
Every time we stopped she would count "one, two, three, go!" until we started moving again.

Man, can I be any more pregnant?

If she wasn't trying to push the stroller, Elsie liked to walk holding Lucas' hand.

Elsie liked looking at the big statue of Christ, but she was very concerned about the "owies" in Jesus' hands.

Very tired and very cold and very ready to go home.

In the end, she commandeered Lucas' stroller while he wore Elsie's doggie and ran around. Fair trade I think.