Hadley is THREE!

This picture was taken a few months ago, but I still think its a cute one!
 

I can't believe my baby girl is three! I know I will be saying this every year. She is just too cute. Everyone who meets her comments on her big personality. She loves taking to people and talks non-stop. It is just hilarious what comes out of this girls mouth. Her favorite things to play are with her babies, kitchen, and dress up. She is ALL girl! H loves to read books and play on mom's phone. She's loves all dairy products and is quite the meat eater. She is a very smart girl and did great at her 3 year check up. The nurse was very impressed. My favorite part was when they were doing the vision test. She followed directions so well and it was too cute! Hadley loves mints and gum and she enjoys watching football with Dad. She also loves to preform. She is the best singer and dancer. One of her new songs is "the wise man and the foolish man" She has also been learning a lot of Christmas songs. We just love this girl!

November!

1. November was a birthday month. Hadley got to go to a couple fun birthday parties.
2. It was Hadley's 3rd Birthday!! Unfortunately I had to work and Dad was out of town so we didn't get to celebrate as much as we wanted to. I made cupcakes for Hadley to take to her babysitters, Hadley and I went out to dinner, and she got to open presents from mom, dad, and her grandparents! She didn't notice it was low key and still had a good time. (I'll have to do another post all about our little 3 year old)
3. It was thanksgiving! I had to work. (BOOO!) But Drew and Hadley got to spend it with two other families in our neighborhood. They had a great time eating, visiting, and playing.
4. I started working. I really am enjoying my job, but it is definitely an adjustment in our family. Please do not come over to our house unannounced because it is guaranteed to be a disaster! Once I am done with training and am only working 3 days a week I'm sure it will be better.
5. Hadley has of course started going to a sitters when I work. She loves it! There are many days when she doesn't even want to come home because she is having too much fun. We are grateful to this family for taking good care of our precious girl!

Glance of October

I have been horrible about posting. My new plan is to try and post once a month. So here is October...
 1. We moved to Dallas, Texas...more specifically Fate.
2. We have met a lot of new friends already! We go to play group and story time every week. We went to the Dallas arbetoreum for a play group. It was a lot of fun. Hadley got her face painted, went to the petting zoo, music time, and much more!
3. We went back to Houston one weekend for the BYU vs. UH game. Drew and I had fun and H got to play with old friends and a babysitter.
4. I started searching for jobs and found one! I will be starting at Parkland hospital Nov. 18th working in post partum! I'm so excited to be working in my dream department.
5. Halloween! We painted/carved pumpkins on Monday. We went to the ward trunk-or-treat on Wednesday. And of course a little trick-or-treating in our neighborhood on Thursday. H was Cinderella and she loved her costume! Especially her shoes that light up.
6. We let H keep 10 pieces and took her shopping for a toy. The rest of the candy will go to Drew's work.
7. Porter grave marker was completed! We were happy to see it completed when we visited Houston! It looks really nice.
8. My due date was also this month. That combined with just moving made it extra hard, but we are doing well. We will always miss and long for our sweet baby boy. However, we are staying positive and loving life with our sweet girl Hadley. (I can't believe she turns 3 in just a couple weeks!)

Sorry I don't know how to turn this around. But we love it!

Kemah Boardwalk

 

While Grandma and Papa were here we took them to Kemah Boardwalk. Somewhere new for all of us. H got to ride a couple rides including the train and merry-go-round. H loved riding the zebra! She also got a corn dog and papa even won a basketball for her! It was super hot, but we still had fun.

4th of July

 

We were lucky to have Grandma and Papa McDonald come to visit us for 4th of July! We had a lot of fun. We went to the Kingwood parade, Grandma and Papa took H swimming, went to a BBQ and awesome fireworks at a neighbors house!

Unexpected Trial

I began writing a very detailed post of the events that started on Father's Day, but decided I just wasn't ready to share all the details. Here is the summary:
On Father's Day I had an unexpected gush of fluid. I wasn't having any bleeding or cramping but decided to go to Labor & Delivery just in case. I was 21 weeks pregnant. Our baby boys heart rate was great and the nitrazine test showed no amniotic fluid had leaked. I was sent home. During the next 12 hours I continued to have several more gushes of fluid. I went to my OBGYN on Monday. She first did an ultrasound that showed "amniotic fluid was on the low side." Again she did a nitrazine test that was negative. I was admitted into the hospital for IV fluid and monitoring. Tuesday morning a detailed ultrasound showed baby boy had very little amniotic fluid surrounding him. I had obviously lost a lot of amniotic fluid. We were told our baby boy had pretty much zero chance of survival whether he was born today or if I lasted 6 more weeks. At this point I was at risk for infection because my water had broke. I was allowed to go home. On Thursday we had another doctor appointment. The ultrasound showed I had continued leaking amniotic fluid. Baby had no fluid around him. Without this fluid he would not be able to develop properly. He also was small for gestational age. I problem with the placenta is also expected. I was then admitted to the hospital for delivery.
Our sweet baby boy was born Friday June 21, 2013. He was 9.8 ounces and 8.5 inches long. He was perfect in every way. We named him Porter Steffen McDonald. We got to spend several hours loving and holding him. We experienced a lot of peace and comfort during that time.
On Tuesday we had a small graveside service in which Drew was able to dedicate the grave. It was very special to us.
We are so grateful for the family and friends who have supported us during this difficult time.

More pics of Hadley...

H loves strawberry yogurt!

For play group one week I taped shapes on the floor and called them out to run to.

Let's color.

Ice Cream Cone!!

Having a snack with her buddies!

Hadley has the best dad!

Just giving her baby a bath in the sink.

Noodles!

I have pretty shoes!

Christmas...very late!

To celebrate christmas this year we tried to do some different things. We did a scripture chain and a calander for activities for each day. Here are some pictures from our activities:

Our Christmas a little different this year. A few hours before we left to fly to Las Vegas we found out Grandpa Rose had passed. So we ended up spending most of the week in Utah and then went back to Vegas for a few days. Although this time was sad we enjoyed getting to see more family than we had planned. Here are some pictures from our trip: