Heidi's Here!

We are now a family of four!

I went in for an appointment earlier in the day on Tuesday, and I was feeling stronger contractions than normal for several hours after that. They were still fairly mild pain wise, though, so I went about my normal activities for the day like running errands, making dinner and playing with Cosette. But by early evening I felt that they were regular enough to go to the birth center (we decided not to do a hospital birth this time). We called my mom around 8:00 so she could make the drive from Springville, then had my visiting teacher Connie Baldwin come over to be in the house with Cosette (who was in bed and had no idea that she was about to become a big sister) until my mom got there.

Well, when we went in to the birth center they examined me and told me that my contractions weren't hard enough for me to stay. I was really devastated, because the contractions finally felt different this time and I was sure that Heidi was going to be born soon. But the midwife wanted me to wait and come back when I could no longer walk and talk during the contractions.

So we got in the car to drive back home, feeling pretty disappointed since this was our second false alarm. I waited a few minutes before calling my mom, not wanting to cry on the phone. But while I was talking to her, telling her that we were coming home, Jeff braked at a stop light and my water broke! So I ended the call with my mom and called the birth center to explain that we were coming right back.

After my water broke the contractions were hard and painful. I focused on my breathing and relaxing techniques while Jeff tried to drive as smoothly as possible on the terribly bumpy roads. When we got back to the birth center I managed to make it inside and up the stairs. They asked if I wanted to go into the birth room, but all I wanted to do was change out of my wet clothes. Jeff came into the bathroom to help me, and while we were in there I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. I knew that this was what the last stage of labor felt like, but I assumed it was too early for me to push. But I was wrong!

When I started screaming the midwife and assistants rushed right in, helping me stand right next to the potty because there wasn't time to move to the birth room. Three minutes and two or three pushes later, Heidi was born!

From the time my water broke to the time she was born was about 35 minutes. Crazy! I am SO glad that she wasn't born in the car (or toilet)!

We spent a few hours at the birth center, and then made it home around 3:30 a.m. this morning. Here are a few pictures of us at the birth center:

Meeting Daddy

At the birth center

It was fun to watch Cosette's reaction when she met Heidi for the first time this morning. Cosette went to bed last night just like any other day, and then she wakes up to find her new sister is home (along with Grandma visiting). She's been very shy around Heidi and hasn't wanted to touch her or get very close to her, so we haven't taken any pictures of the two sisters yet.

Here are a few cute pictures of Heidi on her first day at home:

1 day old

A shy smile at one day old

Sorry, Heidi - you're cute even when you try to be scary

We're so grateful that Heidi has joined our family!
Oh, and in keeping the Anderson tradition of something having to go wrong when we bring a baby home (the day after we brought Cosette home, Jeff got a terrible stomach bug and I had to take care of both him and a newborn), our dishwasher decided to leak today. We're not sure what is wrong, but water leaked into the downstairs bedroom, getting into the light fixture and dripping onto the carpet. So we'll have to wash our dishes by hand until we can either get it fixed or replaced.

Anniversary

With Heidi's due date on July 24th, I was confident that we wouldn't be doing anything special for our anniversary on August 2nd. But as we got closer to the date with no baby, I decided that we might as well take advantage of her late arrival and celebrate our 6 years of marriage.

In the morning we visited the Bountiful temple as a family. We brought our book of wedding photos and walked around the temple grounds like we were on a scavenger hunt, finding where each picture was taken.

It was a lot of fun to do this with Cosette. And as we were getting ready to leave Cosette talked about how she was getting married in the temple that day. I complimented her on her beautiful wedding dress (she was wearing the rainbow dress from her birthday) and asked her who she was marrying. Her reply? "I'm gonna marry Bear."

Then in the afternoon Jeff and I went on a date. We ate lunch at La Jolla Groves (which I highly recommend) and then visited the planetarium, where we went on our second date. We looked at some exhibits and played around with some of the fun merchandise in the gift shop.

All in all it was a fun and memorable anniversary.

4th of July

We had a really fun time celebrating the 4th of July at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Since the holiday was on a Friday, we get together on the 5th.

Grandma had a craft for the kids to do.  They got to pick a foam animal mask to make, and Cosette chose a ladybug.

 Almost immediately after she made it, she put it on Bear.  And he has worn it ever since (and now we're into November).

Here are the grandkids joining hands to run around the yard with Grandpa.  Cosette had a lot of fun playing with water in the backyard last year, so we anticipated that we would do it again.  But Cosette was the only kid with a bathing suit, so when we got out the squirt guns everyone shot at Cosette.

 Cosette had a lot of fun with the sprinklers.

All in all it was a really fun holiday with family.  We also stopped by to see the Jensens on the way down, but I didn't take any pictures.  We had lunch and visited for a little while, and Rachel was kind enough to share some of her delicious cherry crop, which we then shared with my parents and sister.  They were the best cherries I've ever eaten, and my dad LOVED them.  Thanks again, Rachel!

Happy Father's Day, Jeff!

When Jeff came home from work on Friday, Cosette and I were out walking around in the neighborhood.  She wanted Jeff to join us, so I called him and told him where we were.  While we were waiting for him to come find us, Cosette started talking about her daddy.  She said, "I like my daddy.  He's my friend.  He's a cool daddy."  I thought it was a touching and candid moment that I wanted to share.

Sometimes, in the middle of the day, Cosette will look really sad and say that she misses her daddy and wishes he could stay home and play with her.  She's always really excited for the weekend to come, and we like to call them "Daddy Days."

Here are some cute pictures of Jeff and Cosette that I took on our vacation to Park City over Memorial Day weekend.

And here are two videos showing Jeff and Cosette playing together.  The first was taken last September, and the second was on our Park City trip.

I love watching the two of them together.  Cosette is lucky to have such a kind and caring father.

And I'm lucky to have Jeff as a husband.  I know I don't thank him enough for all that he does for me and for our family.  Jeff, thank you for mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, doing dishes, making smoothies in the morning, and all the other odds and ends you do around the house.  But more than the physical things that you do, thank you for your unconditional love, your testimony, your example, your kind and forgiving nature.  Thank you for working so hard to provide for us; I am so grateful to be able to be a stay-at-home mom.  Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and father.  I love you!

Happy Father's Day, Jeff!

Love,
Christine, Cosette, and "Buh-buh-buh"

Park City Trip

As a gift, my parents let us stay in a resort that was affiliated with their time share.  We decided to go to Park City over Memorial Day weekend.  We left Friday afternoon and came home on Tuesday.

Here's Cosette "helping" me pack for the trip.  She was really excited to go.

We stayed at a place called The Lift Lodge.  Something kind of funny happened when I went to check in.  The person working at the front desk started getting flustered and making phone calls.  I wondered if our reservation got messed up, or if it didn't exist at all.  But it turns out that the worker had taken one look at me and worried that a pregnant woman couldn't climb the stairs to the unit that was reserved for us.  Once I discovered that this was the problem I reassured him that I was only 7 months pregnant and perfectly capable of climbing stairs.  It was considerate of him to worry about it, but I also thought it was kind of funny.
Cosette had a room to herself, which was nice.  She declared that we were staying at Bear's house, and she would get upset and correct us if we slipped and said that we were staying in Park City.

On Saturday it was rainy in the morning, so we did a little shopping, ate our bagged lunch in the car, and went to the Olympic Village.  We found a pretty cute toy store and let Cosette pick out one toy, and she chose a small red squishy bear that has a light-up ball inside of it.  If you look closely, you can see it in several of the pictures.

Cosette in an Olympic bobsled

On Saturday afternoon the weather cleared up, so we went to the Park City Mountain Resort (which turned out to be within walking distance of The Lift Lodge, which was very convenient) and rode a few rides.  Cosette rode the merry-go-round, a small train, and an airplane ride.  Jeff and I also played a round of miniature golf, and they were kind enough to give Cosette her own club and ball and not charge us for it.  She had fun walking around on the course and dropping her ball into the holes.  She even managed to hit her ball in from a foot or two away.

Sunday was pretty low key, which was nice.  In the morning we went to a local Sacrament Meeting.  To get there we took a nice drive through the mountains.  Then in the afternoon we went for a walk on The Farm Trail, which turned out to be a paved path that ran alongside a main road.  It also ran past an old historic farmhouse, which you can see in the background of my picture with Cosette.  We brought the stroller with us to push Cosette around, but most of the time she used it to push Bear around, which was pretty cute.

Look, Mommy - a stick!

On Memorial Day we spent the morning on historic Main Street.  We did a lot of window shopping.  My favorite stores were the artwork and photography stores.  Cosette's favorite part was riding the free "trolley" (which was basically a converted bus) around Main Street, which we did twice.  I think she was excited about that because of watching the show Daniel Tiger, which has a trolley in it.

Jeff and Cosette on a bridge over Main Street

Monday afternoon we went back to the Mountain Resort and let Cosette ride her favorite rides a few more times.  I was extremely tempted to ride the Alpine Slide, which I LOVE, but decided that wasn't the smartest thing for a pregnant woman to do.

After checking out on Tuesday morning we went back to that historic farm for a picnic lunch before heading on the road.  On the way home we spent a few hours at the zoo.  We got to watch the elephants take a shower with a hose and do a few tricks.  Cosette enjoyed climbing on animal statues and playing in the splash park.  I was really sad that we discovered the water feature right before we left, because Cosette didn't get to play there for very long, and her clothes were still a little wet on the ride home.

We made it back home from our trip just in time for me to tutor Nathan Bailey one last time.  And when I walked in the door, I discovered that one of our toilets had been running the entire time we were gone.  Oops!  Oh, well - as far as water issues go, it could have been a lot worse.
All in all it was a fun trip.  It was just right for our family - pretty low key, slow paced, and lots of down time. I think some of my favorite things were just being together, reading books, dancing, talking, laughing.  Thanks for making the trip possible, Mom and Dad!

Family

I realized that I had a bunch of pictures of Cosette with family members, and I thought it would be fun to post them.

With Great-Grandpa Bond on New Years Day

Having fun with Aunt Katie

Decorating Valentine's cookies with Grandma

Reading a story with cousin Adriana

Posing with Uncle Ken when he visited in April

And then this last photo was taken on Friday when my sister-in-law Rachel and nephew Kenny stayed with us.  Rachel came out for her friend's wedding, and here they are all dressed up for the reception that night.

Cute Cosette Moments

Our little girl is tons of fun.  I thought I'd post some pictures and cute stories from the past few months.

When you ask Cosette the name of the baby in Mommy's tummy, she insists that her sister's name is "Buh-buh-buh."  Don't know where that came from.  And if I commit the terrible sin of referring to the baby by another name, she gets very offended and corrects me.

Here is an example of her silliness and acrobatic skills:

We bought a membership to our local aquarium, and Cosette really loves it.  The first time we went, her favorite place was a tiny unfinished crawl space.  If you look closely at the top of the picture, you can see there's a circle for the kids to stand up and be inside of an exhibit, but it's not finished yet.  Cosette just loved crawling in and out and having a special place to hide with Bear.

Love how this picture turned out

One day I came home from tutoring to find that the living room had been transformed by Cosette and her babysitter Bridget.  I let Cosette keep it up for a day or two before making her take it down.  It was a pretty cool box house.

Cosette is always playing new make-believe games with Bear.  On the day I took this picture, Bear had been baby Jesus for a while, and Cosette and I took turns being Mary by wearing her hooded sweatshirt on our heads.  In this picture Bear is having a birthday party.  It's very common for him to be surrounded by a little shrine of toys, sticks, food, and other offerings.  He always gets the best of everything.  For example, on Mother's Day the picture that she drew in Nursery that was supposed to be for me went to Bear instead.  And I love it when she sets up a picnic for her animals, but the only one who has any food is Bear.

A side note about Mother's Day.  That morning I woke up when Cosette came into our bedroom.  She climbed into bed and snuggled with me, then we lay there talking, laughing and playing for 30 minutes or so before we got up to start the day.  I loved it.

Yesterday we finished planting the garden.  For a while Cosette took possession of the hoe, and it was so cute I just had to snap some pictures.

She was making vacuum noises while pushing the hoe.

And to end, here are some funny things Cosette has said:

Cosette: I'm wearing Daddy's shoes so I'm a boy. (She's wearing a dress and Jeff's church shoes.)

             (directed at Jeff) I'm a Daddy right now, so don't be Daddy - you're gonna be Mommy.

             (directed at me) And you're gonna be the little kid!

Me: I am?!?

Cosette: I'm gonna be a little Daddy who gets the porridge and eat it all around. (She's holding a bowl of play food Cheerios that she's been pretending is a bowl of porridge like in the Goldilocks story.)

Cosette: Daddy, why do you get hungry?

Me: Do you get hungry sometimes?

Cosette: Umm, no.

Me: Then why are you eating applesauce?

Cosette: Because I'm hungry.

Me: Oh, ok.