Aunt Kate and Uncle Chad Visit!

Thanksgiving was extra special at our house because Aunt Kate and Uncle Chad flew in from Ohio to spend a few days with us. The kids have missed them terribly since we moved and they were sooo excited to see them.
I was terrible about taking pictures while they were here... This was taken before they left just as the kids were going to bed. We needed at least one picture of all of them together.

Meg and Aunt Kate on Thanksgiving Day.

Morgan's gingerbread train she made.

Miles decided to make the more traditional gingerbread house.

Miles was in heaven having Chad around. He was Chad's shadow the entire time they were here.

Look at this adorable elephant Kate made for Meg. That's right, I said made. Love it! And so does Meg - see her smiling :)

And what would Thanksgiving weekend be without a little Black Friday shopping. Meg's all ready to go... And to be honest it wasn't that exciting. The stores were actually pretty empty and there wasn't that much going on. I guess everyone did their shopping in the middle of the night.

It was such a fun weekend filled with movies, hanging out and tons of yummy food. We hope they come back again soon!

Lovin' our little Nut-Meg as Miles calls her...

Meg wants to thank her sweet Aunt Beth for making her some fun hats.

This girl loves to spit out her tongue... She may be part lizard :)

And she is super smiley. I know "they say" babies don't really smile this young, but Meg smiles like crazy. And she smiles in response to making eye contact and being talked to, so she's smiling if you ask me. I've even caught her in the act- check this out...

So the other day while we were all cuddled up watching a movie together, I looked down and Morgan and Meg were holding hands... It totally melted my heart.


Honestly this girl is constantly being loved on by her siblings. I have to physically pull them off of her after a while so she doesn't get smothered. It's not such a bad problem to have this whole being so loved thing. She's a lucky girl.


She's so little and squishy... I just can't get enough of her!

She's plumping up so much already.

And look at these little pants from Aunt Kate and Uncle Chad... So dang cute!

Speaking of Aunt Kate and Uncle Chad, they came to visit over Thanksgiving... That post is next.

Meg's First Week

Today was my actual due date. I am SO thankful that I am not still pregnant. Seriously. Can you just imagine having this stuffed inside your body.

Seriously. No wonder I was so miserable that last month. I love having my body back to myself. Sometimes I bend over and pick up things just because I can.

Meg at 6 days old. Seriously the sweetest little thing ever.

Our first family photo of the 6 of us. Mike surprised Morgan by showing up at school and checking her out so she could pick Meg and I up from the hospital. That made her feel really special. Will was ready to go bye-bye and didn't want to sit for a picture. That's why I'm trapping him in.

Meg has had lots of visitors this week. She especially loved seeing her Aunt Brookie and meeting some of her cousins. (All of her Utah Aunts and cousins have been by this week, but this is the only visit that had a picture.) So fun.

One of my favorite things this week was this edible fruit bouquet from Mike's work. I came home from the hospital starving and when this came to the door, I was in heaven. I didn't want to share with the kids, but I did :)

Morgan has been in heaven this week. She could hold Meg all day long and be perfectly content. I thought she was cute cuddling with Meg so I grabbed the camera, and as soon as I clicked Meg smiled. I caught the start of her smiling. So cute.

I love this picture of the two of them.

Miles loves holding her too. We've been spending way to much time hanging out in our bed taking turns holding her. She is one spoiled baby.

Will has his own ways of showing Meg he loves her. He tries to share the itouch with her...

And he loves to kiss her head. Will's got sick the weekend before we had Meg and has been sick all week... I've been doing my best to keep them separate, but that is REALLY hard to do. I just hope little Meg doesn't get sick.

Meg's first outing to the Dr. I know the lighting isn't good in this picture and it's hard to see, but her face looks so adorable I just had to post it anyway.

Meg loves the swing. I love seeing her in the swing because it's the same swing we've used for all 4 kids. It brings back so many memories and when I turn on the music it makes me weepy. I am such a sucker for babies.

Meg has the same blue eyes Morgan did when she was born. Around 18 months Morgan's eyes turned green so I'm curious what's going to happen with Meg. The boys were both born with brown eyes, so I'm thinking she will have green eyes like her papa. We'll see.

Overall, our first week with Meg was fabulous. Mike was home from work all week and we all loved having him around. Now we are back to the grind. Today was my first day on my own and it went great. Hopefully tomorrow will too. Hopefully.

Meet Meg

I am the happiest woman on earth. I'm sitting in the hospital (feeling amazing thanks to the lack of a fetus inside my womb) enjoying my last quiet night alone with my newborn before being thrown into the crazy reality of being a mother to 4. I love labor and delivery and the whole entire hospital experience. It's a magical time that I've spent 9 months looking forward to, and I'm trying to savor every second of it. I've been sitting and staring at my baby for hours on end and kissing and smelling the baby more than I probably should. I've also eatten way too many of the cookie and graham cracker packets from the nourishment room. I don't know what it is about giving birth, but I can't get enough of those dang little shortbread cookies.
Anyway, enough about me... Let me introduce you to Meg.

Cute, right? Indeed.
Let's start with the labor part of the story. I have a history of having my babies fast, no make that VERY fast. So, my fabulous Dr scheduled me an induction date for a week before my due date. We don't want to have this baby in the car on the way to the hospital right :) So the morning of the induction, Mike and I headed in at 7:30 in the morning. By 8:30 I was in the delivery bed and the induction was started. The nurse checked me and said I was at a 2 and the baby was so high up that she could barely tell how far dilated I was. At 9:30 the Dr came in and broke my water. A few minutes later I got my epidural. During the next 45 minutes I dilated completely to a ten and was ready to push. I pushed two times and out popped little Meg. She was born on the 7th weighing in at 7 pounds 7 oz. Easy enough to remember - lots of 7's :) The entire process from start to finish took only 2 hours. It was over and Mike and I looked at each other like we're already done... That was easy :)
Here's Meg only a few minutes old...

Mom and Meg meeting for the first time...

Daddy and Meg. Seeing Mike with Meg brought back so many memories of when we had Morgan. There is something so special and sweet to me about seeing a dad and his baby daughter.

Another one of Meg only a few hours old. I love these new pictures because they look like they've been in a boxing match all swollen and red... She looks a lot like Morgan!!

Getting her first bath... Same black hair like all her siblings had when they were born.

When we moved into our room there was a board where the nurses would put their names and add things we needed to do under goals... Mike, being the smartie pants that he is, decided to add something to the list. I saw a few eye rolls from the nurses when they'd come in...

I think Meg got her dad's nostrils...

2 days old.

Meg and Morgan meeting for the first time. Morgan lit up the second she walked into the room and saw Meg. She is going to be an amazing helper!

Big brother was excited too!

Even Will had to hold her.

This is my first "Utah" baby. It's been really fun to have one by my family. My parents have been amazingly helpful! They've watched the kids for dr appointments and took the kids so Mike could spend time with me and the baby at the hospital. I honestly don't know what I would have done without them! Here they are meeting Meg for the first time.

Another visitor - AnnDee!! AnnDee is such a great friend and example to me. She always goes out of her way to show her friends that she cares. She got a sitter for her kids and drove all the way from Springville to bring me Chicken Wrap from Red Robin for lunch. It was fun to visit just the two of us without a bunch of kids interrupting. Thanks for the food and the yummy cookies AnnDee!!

Then later that night our other great friends, The Dukes, brought Mike and I an awesome dinner... Delicious hot sub sandwiches! The hospital food is terrible and I'm so glad I didn't have to eat it. They also got a sitter for their kids and came and hung out with us for a while. They have been such a blessing to us. MaryAnn has helped drive my kids around and made life easier for us while I've been in the hospital. It felt good to sit and laugh and enjoy life. The last couple months of pregnancy have been so uncomfortable for me that I haven't really been myself and able to just sit and relax and laugh like that. It was great! Thanks for the awesome dinner guys!

More Meg pictures. Here she is in a little hat from the Nadaulds! LOVE IT!

And here she is by her beautiful flowers from Mike's family. Mike's parents are coming to visit in a few weeks, Kate and Chad are coming even sooner, and Beth is coming in January!! We are so excited to see them! Meg looks like she may be another Grammie Dehner clone like Will. We love those Garlock genes!! Thanks for the flowers!

Another flower picture because I thought they were both cute and I couldn't decide which one to use :)

Let me tell real quick about Meg. She had been SO pleasant. She rarely cries and she's sleeping great. She came out and latched right on to nursing - a pro just like all the others. She has a cute little V in her forehead - some kind of birthmark or stork bite that "they say" will lighten up and go away over time. I think it's cute!
And there you have it... Our little Meg Ann Dehner. We love her to pieces already.