Going Home...

Finally headed home...

and excited to get some sleep without being woken up every few hours by another visit from a nurse or hospital staff.
Now to get this one to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time.

Basil Meets...

Sunday morning Queden headed over to the hospital with little Boopers so she could meet her little sister. At first she was just interested in the saltine crackers she found on my food tray, but after they were good and eaten she noticed the little squeaker wrapped in blankets.

And in case you didn't know, baby Hazel is quite funny. She makes Bailey laugh every time she sees her.
She is also very good at letting me know where the baby is which is very valuable information should we ever misplace her.
And of course she is a pro at waving to baby Hazel.
Bailey loving her little sister was never a fear of mine. It is more a problem that she loves her a little too much.
Especially when she tries to point out where Hazel's eyes, nose and mouth are. Let us pray that Hazel can maintain both of her eyes.
And in case you need to get both of their attentions at once? By all means, call them Basil. Sam said he doesn't mind sharing his clever idea as long as he gets credit for it.

Introducing...

Hazel Umeko Braden

Born 12/10/2011 at 10:36 pm
Weight: 7 lbs 3 oz
Length: 19 1/2 in.

She made her appearance a full hour and 24 minutes before her due date which makes her the only punctual member of our family. Way to be Hazelnut.

Where's Waldo?

Where did the Bailey go?

In person she is much easier to find because you can follow the sounds of her giggles.

She is also pretty impatient and can't help but take plenty of peaks.

Love this little hider.

The Braden Household...

Well we haven't had this baby yet. This little one is a big prankster. With Bails once the painful contractions started they progressively got worse and closer together and then we went to the hospital and she came. This one thinks its funny to throw painful ones in for awhile, and then just stop and have everything go back to normal. It is pretty much driving me crazy considering Sam's finals are coming and he is getting nervous. She will probably come on Monday considering Sam has his anatomy and histology tests that day, followed by his Tuesday morning OSCE. Sounds about right. It is also Rachel baby's birthday and I am going to try to set a trend and have all of my kids on one of our siblings' birthdays.

Sam's intramural basketball team made it to the championship game. It is tonight. If they win he gets a free t-shirt. This could possibly make Sam happier than the birth of his child. There is nothing better to Sam than a free shirt. Pretty sure his closet his living proof of this. Too bad his game is way too late for Bails to attend. She loves trying to sneak onto the court and join the boys. I guess his games prove that it is possible for me to go from sitting on the ground to standing in approximately 1.25 seconds without going into labor or peeing my pants. Just don't tell Sam. I like to play the damsel in distress card as much as possible.

Bailey watched Barney for the first time ever this morning with Uncle Robby. Pretty sure it was the funniest thing in the world. Whenever Barney broke out into song she was compelled to stand up and start dancing. She even tried to copy their dance moves. Oh Barney the dinosaur. If this becomes a favorite I may have to kill Robby for introducing it to her. He already got her hooked on Elmo you tube videos. I am not sure if I could handle another brightly colored, singing monster in this house.

In primary on Sunday the lesson was about honoring the name's of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. This led to a discussion about the new baby's name. We've still got nothing; only arguments about what we each think it should be. One of the five year olds told us to name her Rosie. That was a different five year olds dog's name. Bailey is the name of the dog up the street from my parent's house. Maybe we should just go with a dog name theme.

The big December Costco trip has taken place, stocking our bare shelves with hopefully enough food so we don't starve after bringing this baby home. The Christmas shopping is more done than I even thought possible for a couple of horrible procrastinators like Sam and myself. The hospital bag is not packed, but I've thought about packing it multiple times so...hopefully she can just come so we can stop worrying about what we will do if she comes on each individual day and we can just wing it the best we know how. Good luck to us.

Ward Christmas Party!

I figured we wouldn't really make it to many Christmas parties this year considering it usually takes me an eternity to recover from a baby delivery and taking a new born outside in this freezing cold weather is kind of scary. But the ward party was nice and early this year so we decided to go. Bailey loved watching the primary kids on the stand singing their Christmas song. She also enjoyed eating the dinner. Blueberries dipped in yogurt are pretty much her favorite.

Not her favorite thing? Pretty sure it's Santa Claus...
She was holding on to me so tight she wanted nothing to do with him. For some reason the kids weren't sitting on his lap, which was probably the answer to Bailey's little prayers.
Here she is trying to run away from the jolly old guy and his elves.
And then he pulled out a candy cane. That caught her attention for a few seconds. She is willing to stand next to strangers for a little while if it involves her getting a piece of candy. That's good news for us. Not.
And then her four second turn was over because some older kids moved in on Santa, blocking the camera. Oh well. Maybe next time.

O Christmas Tree...

I can't believe Christmas time is upon us. I have been looking forward to it a little extra this year because it also brings the end of this pregnancy; which of course made it seem extra far away.

And now here we are setting up the tree. Which is especially nice considering even my maternity clothes are getting a little too snug on me.
Bailey was quite the little helper this year which made it sort of fun, sort of stressful. Our tree gets to be pretty top heavy considering she loves pulling the bulbs off the tree and just throwing them around the room and chasing after them.
At least she thinks she is helpful.
Let the Christmas Season begin!