Savannah

Bella, Calder and I went to Savannah, GA to visit my mom and dad. Melissa, Jeff and Madison also came to visit. We had so much fun exploring-Savannah is one of my favorite places. We ate at Paula Dean's, Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House (which is better than Paula Dean's, I think), and a haunted pirate house. We went down River Street, Bella played in the fountain, went on a dolphin excursion, and we took a carriage ride around town. We also played at Tybee Island. It was Madison and Calder's first time to the beach, and also to the Atlantic Ocean. We boogie boarded and built sand castles, and I got fried! I was so busy putting sunscreen on my kids, I forgot about myself. Bella's favorite thing to do was to sit on the boogie board out on the water and ride the waves. She would giggle every time she went over one. Also, she loved to build sand castles, and then stomp on them-it was pretty funny. We were all so bummed when we had to go home!

Calder is 2 months!

Calder is two months old! At his two month check up he weighed 13 pounds 14 ounces and was 24 3/4 inches tall. He was in the 95% for both. He is one solid boy! He loves to smile and is starting to laugh. He sleeps very well, only waking up once in the night and he takes four 1 and a half to 2 hour naps a day. He loves to be held, snuggled and swaddled. Bella is a good big sister to him and is always helping me take care of him.

Bubbles

Gotta love that face! She is trying so hard to blow bubbles. Do you see how messy they are? They are the new Crayola color bubbles, which translates to pure dye! I think we dyed all our clothes (even the ones underneath the smock) the sidewalk, and the grass. She sure did have a lot of fun though, this girl loves her bubbles!

Family Fun

Bret took Bella fishing for her first time on Memorial Day. She didn't love it as much as he had hoped but they still had a lot of fun. She caught a lot of fish! She liked to try to get the fish that Bret caught in the net. And Calder did what he does best-slept!

I thought this picture was so cute. Bella introduced Calder to her favorite things-princesses and Dora. They are snuggled in her princess bed and are watching Dora.

53 River Bank Run

Bret ran the 53 River Bank Run 25k this weekend. A 25k is a random length for a race, it was 15 miles. Bret did really well. A few of his friends ran it with him as well. Bella was a good cheerleader, she yelled, "GO DADDY!" as he was crossing the finish line. Gina was supposed to run it with him, but she couldn't find her registration info when we got there! It was nice for me though, becuase she was a big help with the kids trying to manuever the crowds. As we were trying to find the finish line, we saw and heard two ambulances. We found out later that just a few minutes behind Bret was a man who had collapsed and died at mile 14. It was so sad.

After the race we went to the Tulip Festival in Holland, MI. The tulips were everywhere and were so gorgeous! Bella loved watching the parade. There was fair food, so we all splurged on it- I got a deep fried snickers bar-it was amazing! After that we drove Gina to see Lake Michigan. It is one of my favorite places in Michigan. The beach there rivals any of the best beaches in the country. Too bad it was cold outside, or we would have gone swimming. Oh well, that's what we get for living in Michigan, its cold even in May.

Detroit Hoedown!

We love going to the Detroit Hoedown! We thought we would stop in this year on our way to the 53 River Bank Run.  Bret and I love going for the BBQ, the country music, and a good excuse to bust out the cowboy hats and boots. We took my Aunt Gina with us and she had a good time as well. We scared her on the drive down to the Hoedown, becuase we drove her through the rough side of Detroit, I think she would be ok if we never did that again! 

My little girl is growing up so fast! Here she is in her new swimsuit that she got from her Grandpa Andrus. Bret took her swimming when we got to our hotel.  She loves to go swimming!

Bret Calder Allen

He is here! Our baby boy finally made it.  I had lost all hope! lol My midwife kept telling me that I was going to have this baby early so I kept counting on it. When I was about 37 weeks she said that I better have my bags packed, because the baby could come any time.  So I was pretty down when I went to my 39 week appointment and the midwife started talking about what was going to happen at my 40 week appointment.  I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced.  Bret kept commenting on how sad I sounded.  I just spent the rest of the day having kind of a pity party.  Bella and I just hung out, slept, and watched Pride and Prejudice.
Calder must have been able to sense my anxiousness to get him here, because that night at about 2:30 I woke up with labor pains.  They were just random, I was able to sleep for some of the night.  And then about 5:30 they were really consistent and I couldn't go back to sleep.  So I decided to get up and get ready, call me vain, but I was determined this time to look decent in the hospital pictures.  With Bella I was so exhausted and you can tell in the pictures!
Bret called Steve, our home teacher over to come and help him give me a blessing, which I was so grateful for.  We left the house about 8:30 and my contractions were about 5-10 minutes apart.  We dropped Bella off at her best friend Melayna's house, and were finally on our way!
When I was admitted into the hospital my contractions had slowed down a ton.  I don't know if they would have let me stay, except for the fact that I was 100% effaced and dilated to a 4.
 The pain was very different this time around.  I was able to handle it a lot better.  I don't know if it was because I knew what to expect or what.  Don't get me wrong, it was definitely painful, but I was able to manage it better.  The midwife tried to encourage me to hold off on the epidural for a while, but when she came to check on me she said, "You don't look so good!" and ordered the epidural, Thank goodness! I finally was able to sleep a bit.  I thought I was only out for a few minutes, but Bret said I slept for at least an hour.  I loved having a midwife because she stayed with us for a long time.  She even  sat there while I slept to monitor me!
The epidural wore off on one side faster than the other, so I could feel the contractions on my right side pretty intensely. And then it had almost completely worn off when I started pushing.  I progressed from a 6 to a 10 in about a half hour.  I wasn't watching the clock, but I would guess that I pushed for 20-30 minutes, which was a nice change from the 2 hours I pushed with Bella.
Bret and I were talking  a little earlier about how we thought it was cool that my brother in law, Jeff was able to help deliver his daughter.  The midwife looked over at Bret and said, "oh did you want to do that?" So Bret was able to deliver Calder.  He said it was really cool to be able to do.  And then they let him cut the cord, and they let us keep the scissors.  I thought that was pretty funny.

Calder was born at 1:49 pm on April 5, 2011.  He weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.  He is a healthy, gorgeous little boy and we are so excited he is here!

Our first picture

We didn't tell his name before, so we had Bella announce it with her shirt

The nurse stamped Calder's footprints on Bret's arm, she even stamped them in his law book!

Bella checking on her little brother