Why???

Because every woman should feel glamorous while doing chores...

Seriously??? Are these aprons or backless dresses??? Sounds like these babies can double as something else...Hmmm???

Someone PLEASE get me one for Christmas!!!

I found these beauties at the following link:

http://www.laylagrayce.com/Default.aspx

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving at the Crooked H (the ranch owned by the Finch family.) We stayed in the big beautiful lodge in the mountains. The ranch is by Clint's Wells. Blake's parents and all of his brothers and sisters and their families were there. It was the first time we have all been together at the same time since our wedding!!! That was three years ago!!! And boy have we added to our numbers since then!!!

Wednesday night we all arrived at various times. Blake and I and our crew arrived last and had the priviledge of closing the gate :) We got there pretty late so I went straight to bed...Not sure what everyone else did because Tess and I slept like rocks...I heard from everyone else that Riley and Blake stayed up the latest...Hahaha...

Thursday morning we got up and got to work cooking the much-anticipated Thanksgiving Dinner!!! We had some serious fun cooking everything and all the work payed off...Everything tasted great!!! After we ate, we rested for a while and then got ready to take family pictures... Taking pictures was a zoo, to say the least!!! Just imagine two silly girls with cameras on tripods, and everyone else, who was just as silly...There was much running back and forth setting timers and trying to get into place before they went off...Let's just say that all the smiles in the pictures are genuine because everyone was well entertained ;)

Thursday night was filled with movies for the kids and games for the adults...Again, much silliness and laughing!!!

Friday, I broke my tradition of getting up and getting to the stores as they open, no matter how early...That's right people...I LOVE Black Friday!!! But we all slept in a little and packed lunches for a day on the road...We started off up the mountain to see the view from the Mogollon Rim... On the way we stopped a few times to take in the beautiful scenery and see where a tornado hit a few weeks ago...We arrived at the Rim and took more family pictures and ate lunch...The view from the Rim was GORGEOUS!!! We even got a re-enactment of when Denver proposed to Megan...

We then set off for Camp Verde to see Clifford and Tami's house. After the house we did some shopping in Cottonwood and had dinner at Panda Express...Then we headed over to Sedona to see the Christmas lights at Tlaquepaque...It was pretty cold, but still fun!!! Then we headed home...Again, I went straight to bed because Blake and I and our crew had to get up early and go to Snowflake to my cousin Ray's wedding...

The wedding was great and the reception that night was beautiful...A great ending to a great weekend!!! Enjoy the pictures...We took a ton!!! Here are a few!!!

Riley made sure Spongebob got in on all the action

This picture is dark but it is the best one Blake and I got of all the grandkids...All the kids did good for like two pictures and then chaos ensued...

The Blake Finch family

Nana and Papa and all the grandkids

Tess and me practicing our smiles

The caravan on our Friday drive

This is where the tornado hit...It snapped trees like toothpicks and some were even completely uprooted

The view from the Rim

Glad to be back home after a weekend of partying!!!

Taking a Break...

Just thought I would post a few pictures of the kids...I am still getting used to saying kidS...Things have been pretty busy around here but I thought I would take a break and post... Enjoy

Riley helping with the dishes...

What a goof!

Thank goodness for Bumbo Chairs...

I LOVE jeans on babies!!!

I had to sneak in a picture of the baby makers :)

They love each other sooo much!!! Riley was the first to get Tess to smile...He loves to hold her, with Mom's supervision, of course...

Don't pay any mind to the fact that Rilely's face is dirty in most of these pictures...What can I say??? It's a wrestling match between the two of us every time I try to clean him up and honestly he wins about half the time...Let me tell you he is one tough kid...

Blake and I had our second annual Halloween party on Saturday night!!! It was fun and the food was great, as usual :) Except for the homemade rootbeer because I am a spaz and added twice as much club soda as the recipe called for...I read "1 liter of soda" and visualized 2 liter bottles in my head for some reason and it was all down hill from there...But other than that everything went great!!! I was running around so much that I didn't take hardly any pictures but I did get some of the Halloweenies :) I didn't feel like taking my kids out so I just bought them Halloween pajamas instead of costumes...My sister also brought her new baby boy Cameron in his Halloween pajamas!!! Cameron and Tess are exactly three weeks apart and you would not believe the difference already!!! They are the same height but Tess seems so much bigger because she is awake more and has filled out...Enjoy!!!

All of our Halloweenies!!! Don't focus on me, I HAD to bein the picture to keep Riley from loving the babies to death...

Cameron Phillip Gray...What a cutie!!!

Tess...Her shirt says, "Daddy's under my spell."

The bum on Tess' pants was the best part of the outfit

We couldn't get Riley to cooperate so the picture is blurry and not very good...He was so wound up at the party!!! He ran around like crazy and then crashed after everyone went home...

I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween!!!

Tess fell asleep in her carseat at my sister's baby shower on Saturday and my cousin Sarah took some really cute pictures!!! I love them so much!!! Upcoming photoshoot??? I think so...

Home Again, Home Again...

Well it happened!!! We had Tess Thursday night, as planned...I will post the story and pictures...If you are a picture person and don't want the details, it won't hurt my feelings if you don't get down to the nitty gritty and read the details, as this post is for your enjoyment!!!

So I woke up Thursday morning with no contractions...None the entire week, in fact...I just felt "big" and pregnant and the same as the past few weeks...BUT we had a plan!!! Blake started a new job recently and we decided to work around his schedule...He works Monday through Thursday so we rescheduled my appointment to 3pm instead of 8am so he didn't have to miss a day...When the time rolled around, my mom and I headed over to Snowflake, along with Riley and Nanette, to get the party started!!! We dropped Nanette and Riley off at Jennie's and went to my appointment...Wendy (my midwife) checked me and said I was dilated 2 cm...Not what I hoped for, but I was not dilated with Riley at all and she still made it happen that time...She stripped my membranes and told me to call her at 6pm and let her know how things were going...We hoped for the best but planned on a long night because these things do take time...

We drove a few blocks to my Aunt Tricia's house to hang out and wait for Blake to arrive...He had to get off work and get his stuff packed and all that good stuff...Tricia and my mom were slave drivers and decided that I should walk up and down the stairs every few minutes because it might help things along...So I would walk up and down them four or five times every once in a while...I noticed that I started to have very mild contractions and they would progressively get stronger after every session with the stair master...This continued from around 3:30pm to 5:30...Blake arrived in Snowflake and we decided to time the contractions...They were 2 minutes apart and lasted around 1 minute each...I still wasn't concerned because they barely hurt...So 6pm rolled around and I called Wendy and let her know what was going on...She was at the hospital for another delivery so she told me to come on over and she would check me...Blake, my mom, and I got in the truck and drove over to Showlow...

By the time we got to the hospital the contractions were regular and hard enough that I had to breathe through them...I was taken to a delivery room and admitted around 7pm...Wendy checked me and I was dilated 8 cm so she decided to break my water...The contractions kept coming harder and closer together and we thought it probably wouldn't be too long...Well it wasn't too long at all...I started pushing just before 8pm and after three big pushes she was out at exactly 8pm!!! It was all so fast!!! The labor was really intense that last hour but it was so quick that I went natural again...Like I said, super intense but totally worth it!!!

Tess was 6 lbs and 7 oz, we all guessed what we thought she would weigh and I guessed the exact weight!!! She is 19 inches long...That was 2 inches shorter and almost 2 lbs lighter than Riley!!! No wonder it only took three pushes!!! She is so tiny and petite...

We got released yesterday morning and now we are home...Thank goodness!!! Not a big fan of staying in the hospital...

Now for the pictures!!!

Getting cleaned up...She looks just like Riley when he was born...

Hott mama HAHAHA!!!

Brand new big brother :) He just patted her head and said, "Beebee."

Snuggling with daddy...He just kept saying, "She is so precious!!!"

Sleeping in the hospital

Ready to go home!!!

TOMORROW!!!

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya, tomorrow!!!

That would be because tomorrow I am gonna have me a baby...And let me tell you how super pumped I am to get my body back to normal...There are a million other reasons I am excited to have a baby that are much less selfish, but right now I just want to have my body back!!!

This week has been CRAZY to say the least...And it's only half over!!! My days lately have consisted of waking up, eating a bowl of cereal, and then homework, homework, and homework... I am totally getting the bad mom/wife award this week because I have been neglecting Riley and Blake in my attempt to get ahead in my classes so I can take a break for a couple of weeks to adjust to life with two kids...The sad thing is that I am only taking 12 credit hours, from a community college, no less...I have a friend taking 20 credit hours at a university...By the way, serious props to you, you know who you are :) What a woman!!!

Yesterday I did take a break from homework though...For about 4 hours I cooked and cooked and cooked some more so that I could have about two weeks worth of dinners in the freezer that can easily be thawed and heated and ready to go!!! It was a mental break but my back and legs were KILLING me after...

I have got to give credit to Blake for these last few weeks...He has listened to me whine about having so much to do and not enough time and has very cheerfully done every crazy random chore that I have asked, and let me tell you that is quite an accomplishment because I am CRAZY with nesting...Didn't get that at all with Riley and I am certainly making up for it with this one!!! Just imagine me at all hours of the night thinking up really stupid things to do, trying to do them and realizing that it is absurd to do those things at that time of night, and then resorting to sitting down and making a list of them to do first thing in the morning...What can I say??? I am insane...

Every time I start getting cranky and stressed because I feel like I have too much to do I have to remind myself that it is my own dang fault...No one forced me to get pregnant...teeheehee... Sorry about the inappropriate reference, I couldn't help it...Anyway...No one forced me to sign up for classes this semester...I knew what I was getting into when I made these decisions so I should just live one day at a time and do the best I can...Which is all that I CAN do I guess :)

So at 3:00pm tomorrow afternoon you can all stop what you are doing and think, "Martha is officially on her way to having another baby." Ok, so you don't need to do that and it was selfish of me to suggest...But be expecting a post soon about the arrival of Princess Tess!!!

Happy Birthday, Blake!!!

Today Blake is the big 23!!! Here is a list, in no particular order, of 23 things I love about Blake...

-His very beautiful blue eyes

-He sleep talks when he is really tired

-His smile

-His contagious laughter

-His sweet dad skills

-His awesome building skills

-His great husband skills

-He loves to snowmobile

-He loves snow in general

-He is a good driver

-He is a kid at heart

-He reminds people of his Uncle Steven A LOT!!!

-He stands up for what he believes in

-He never makes fun of others to make himself look good

-He has a strong testimony

-He loves and is very close to his extended family as well as his immediate family

-He ALWAYS agrees with me...well, at least when it's important :)

-He can make lots of animal sounds with just his mouth

-He still teases me like we are dating...But I pretend not to like it

-He is a little ticklish and laughs really funny when he gets tickled

-He makes the best German pancakes EVER!!!

-He spoils me rotten

-He chose me!!!

And I thank my Heavenly Father every day that he did :) So have a happy birthday, Blake, from your lovely wife and kids (kinda)

He's at it again...

Blake the Builder decided that he wanted to build me an island for the kitchen...So he went to it and I got the coolest island/table thing that is gorgeous and super cool!!! Take a look...

The top is my absolute favorite...It has so much character!!!

LOVE it!!! Thanks Blake :)

Oh...I also got out all the baby stuff to get ready for the princess and Riley decided that the carseat is his new recliner :) I don't know how many times I have found him asleep in it like this!