Addysen's Arrival

Addysen's birth play by play is a lot shorter than Kaden's play by play.

We heard that the second kid can come a lot faster, but we didn't think it would be THAT fast. At least we didn't have her at home like one of our dear friends (not on purpose).

So... on April 7, 2012 we got good news that our house got an offer that morning...and then we had a birthday party for Kaden's 4th birthday in the afternoon... it was a busy day in our house to say the least. We also had Good Friday service at our church the night before and a Sunday Easter service we were getting ready for. We wanted to squeeze in a birthday party for Kaden. And apparently baby Addysen wanted to join in all the fun that evening!

All day I was having minor contractions, but I was having them all week. On the Monday before we had a doctor appointment and I was already 3cm dilated and 75% effaced.

4:00 pm the last guest left the house, I sat down and all of sudden had a really big contraction. I told Joel...he freaked out just a bit and went downstairs to tell Kristina to help him clean the house cause we might be heading to the hospital. Kaden was getting a sugar crash and tired from all the partying. We were trying to prep him on leaving the house to have baby Addysen... he melted down. We tried to figure out where Kaden would go... Chi Thu and Anh Thanh (Joel's middle sister) was supposed to take Kaden...but they were at Wicked. So, we brainstormed and called our friends Annette and Nappy. Kaden loves playing with their kids. We distracted him enough to go ride his scooter over there with them and then Chi Thu and Anh Thanh would pick him up there after the show. We headed to the hospital from there. I started recording my contractions on my nifty app on my phone...I was about 20 minutes apart when we first left our house, then quickly was 10 minutes apart and when we got to the hospital we were 5 minutes apart. They came on fast and strong.

5:30 pm we arrived at the hospital. The nurse checked me when we got to the hospital and we were 5 minutes apart, 5 cm dilated, 100% effaced. She asked if I wanted any drugs to take the edge off, I declined thinking my epidural was on it's way. They also called the on call doctor and she was on the way in. We started to fill out some paperwork.

6:15 pm I felt like I needed to use the bathroom. Joel freaked out a bit thinking the baby would be delivered in the toilet. Nothing came out (TMI? Sorry). I had a BIG contraction as I was getting back into bed. I asked for the drugs that could take the edge off... and the nurse hesitated, and said the anesthesiologist was almost there. The nurse decided to check me again and she said I was 10 cm dilated... and if my water broke I definitely couldn't get my epidural.

6:28 pm my water broke just as the anesthesiologist walked in the door.  Joel said I looked really sad.  I had the realization that I'm about to push a baby out of me completely drug free.

6:45 pm Dr. Jennifer Miller-Davis got to the hospital. She was the on call doctor. Dr. Wendy Hall is my OB... I was bummed she wasn't on call that night. But she came to check up on us early Monday morning. I pushed through about three or four contractions. It was definitely a different experience than Kaden's birth story... glad Addysen came fast.

7:06 pm Addysen Thanh Thuy To came into the world at a whopping 5.5 lbs, 17 inches. She had a big bruise on her forehead, because she was "sunny side up" or face up when they are supposed to come out face down. That made it a little harder to push her out.        

8:35 pm Joel's sister and family: Chi Thu, Anh Thanh, Gabby, Nathan, Zachary and big brother Kaden came to visit! Kaden was holding his little sister and Chi Thu went to hold her and Kaden burst out in sad tears! He said he wasn't done holding Addysen yet. It was the cutest thing ever!

That's how Miss Addysen decided to come into the world. She was gracious enough to allow her big brother to have his birthday party. We were a little sad to miss Easter service at Missio... but we were so in love with the little peanut it kept us pretty occupied.

Meet Addysen

Here she is.... Fast and adorable! 5.5 lbs. 17 inches. We are all in love.

Work Baby Shower

My work threw me a baby shower. If you haven't heard... I work in the Events Productions department at the Portland Art Museum. There are about seven full time guys and two full time gals. (me being one of them) There's a handful of occasional employees. So, when I got the email we were having a shower for Addysen I was pretty surprised. Cause up until now I've been the party planner.

Needless to say... They put the other girl in charge. Hahah! She did a great job! Balloons, streamers, cupcakes and ice cream and she even made the guys play baby shower games. That was the most entertaining part. I'm not a huge games person, but it was fun with a bunch of techie guys. I felt loved and cared for. Overall fun afternoon celebrating the arrival of Addysen.

Addysen's Baby Shower

We were super spoiled by an owl themed baby shower yesterday! It was a wonderful Sunday afternoon spent with 20 amazing women in my life. We had yummy snacks including adorable owl cupcakes. Cute pinwheels and owls staggered throughout the house. A beautiful banner with Addysen's name on it. We were overwhelmed with a prayer time, gifts, words for the baby on quilt squares and lots of fun and laughter. I am definitely blessed to have such amazing friends and family in my life. My sister and cousin made a surprise trip down for the shower too! Much thanks to all who were involved in every detail and aspect of this fun party!!!

Fun Kaden sayings...

Lately Kaden has been cracking us up left and right. And sometimes the things he's learning always surprises us. Here are a few snip it's into our world:

Kris (our housemate) thought she lost her house key. As she is tearing apart the house looking for it Kaden says, "Lula, if you clean and organize your tuff you won't loose your things."

Kris later tells Kaden that he's funny and he should be a stand up comedian. Kaden replies: "Lula, I can't stand up right now... I have to sit and eat breakfast!"

A convo between Joel and Kaden:
Kaden: dad, you know who loves you best then me?
Joel: who?
Kaden: GOD!

On my birthday Joel whispers to Kaden that it's momma's birthday. With the saddest face Kaden says "Dad, we don't have a cake or surprises for momma!"

we love the random "I love you's" out of the blue. He has been singing his prayers before each meal and tells me "baby Addysen sure is kicking a lot."

There's so much funny stuff he says and does. We are constantly laughing in our house.

Life Lately...

Life lately has been full of adventures...

It's been really good to be a part of a healthy, growing church community. Missio has officially launched this last Sunday to mornings! We meet at 10:30am at Mary Rieke Elementary School. It's been really exciting to watch God move through this community of people to help us love Him more daily and live out his mission in this broken world. Joel has thoroughly enjoyed his new role as a community pastor on staff at Missio. We are still raising support and hoping to move towards more hours and more responsibilities. I am so proud of Joel...he's been more cautious of his health and well being lately... getting workouts in and making healthier eating choices.

I (Lisa) have been growing exponentially... this little baby girl is VERY active! I LOVE IT! (Except maybe at 3am, where I would rather be sleeping... hhaha) She is 27 weeks along and is already well loved. We are praying through a name for this little girl. Right now we are between Addysen or Emery. But we are still throwing other names into the mix.

Addysen means kind, joyful, created by God.
Emery means powerful and brave.

I really need to take some belly pics... I have my glucose test next week... I felt so sick taking that test with Kaden. And then we have another ultra sounds a few weeks after that to check on baby's kidney's.  She had what Kaden had with his kidney's... hopefully it will correct itself before she's born, like Kaden's did.

Other than growing a baby inside me... I've been enjoying my time at the Portland Art Museum. I love being able to build relationships with my co-workers and be able to shine Jesus' love to them. I know God is moving there. I am in constant awe.

Kaden is becoming such a big boy... he is very funny, creative and smart. The last few weeks he has become more bold in his writing skills. He can completely write his name by himself and can write almost all his letters and some numbers. He does get bored or a little ADHD and start going off into drawing race tracks instead of letters...hahah! It's been fun to watch him grow physically (had to buy new pants for him since he's growing out of all his hand-me-down clothes) and also grow spiritually... he was so concerned that some of his friends weren't at church a few weeks ago and asked to pray for them to feel better. It's so easy to forget to direct Kaden's heart towards Jesus daily...

We are all trying to get some sort of rhythm and routine in our lives... but most of of we are trying to abide in Jesus daily. It's been an amazing journey... well... I am going to sign off on this beautiful monsoon rainy portland day...

The year of the museum

Working at the Portland Art Museum we recently got a card called REAP passes that allow us two free tickets to a whole list of museums and attractions in Portland. We can go to the zoo, the children's museum, the aviation museum, OMSI is our science museum and a bunch of other places all for free.

On Tuesday I had a mommy fail and thought Kaden had school but it was teacher in service day. He was excited to go back and I thought it was his turn for "show and tell". We pulled up to an empty parking lot and looked up the school website. So, what did we do instead? We cashed in on my new benefits and headed to the children's museum. It was so weird going there when it wasn't super packed. We've only gone on free days or weekends. We spent a few hours taking our time through the different exhibits. The new one is the Lego exhibit. It was a fun morning. It totally threw off my morning to do list (including a meeting I totally spaced and blogging about all our Christmas activities). Can't wait to take advantage of the card and see some stuff in Portland that I would necessarily pay money for but would like to see. This year has been renamed the year of the museum.