DAPHNE LEE PETERSEN

We went in early Wednesday, June 4th for a repeat C-section. We were excited to meet our baby girl!



All dressed and ready for surgery and excited:)



Daphne Lee Petersen entered the world at 9:31AM and was delivered by Dr. Baker. She looks all bloody here, but I love Dr. Baker's big smile:) The whole room was shocked that her cord was wrapped around her neck 3 times!



DAPHNE LEE PETERSEN 7LBS 4OZ 19.5 INCHES
Her middle name is her daddy's middle name, and her great grandma Petersen's maiden name, and also my grandpa's middle name!



Words cannot describe the feeling of seeing your baby for the first time. LOVE at first sight for sure!!!



PROUD daddy!!! He sure loves his baby girl! It is so sweet to watch him hold and stare at her for hours! You are the best daddy ever!



First bath... She slept through the whole thing. I have pictures of Drake screaming his head off during his first bath. She is such a patient and sweet baby!



Meeting her brother for the first time! Drake brought her a little gift and was so excited to see her:)



Laynie meeting her sister for the first time. She isn't very interested in her, but that's okay. I know someday they will be best friends!



Family of 5!!! WOW, when did I grow up? I couldn't be happier with my wonderful husband and 3 perfect kids!



Daphne had lots of visitors!!! Thank you everyone... especially my mom who has taken over the task of watching my other two kids. And it is no easy task to take on watching Laynie, so THANK YOU mom. I love you and couldn't have had such a great experience without you!!!!



My favorite picture... I caught her first smile on camera:) SOOOOOO CUTE!!!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH DAPHNE. WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY!!!

Our shenanigans....

We have been enjoying the nice weather lately:)

It has been nice that the last few weeks of Drake's soccer games have been warm. My friend from high school, Tricia, was in town and we had lunch and watched Drake's game together! It's so fun to see friends from high school. It is my 10 year reunion this summer. We won't be going because it is the week after our baby is coming, but it's crazy it's been 10 years already!

Drake has lots of fans that come to cheer him on....

 

Laynie, Trevor, and Papa Leo

Grandpa Dale, Laynie, and uncle Jordan

The kids have been enjoying their time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They are always finding a way to help or play with their grandparents.

Trevor may not like that this picture is being posted, but I thought it was WAY too cute not to post. Trev was doing push-ups and Laynie went and undressed herself and put on Drake's shorts and started doing push-ups with him. Then Drake had to take off his shirt and did them too! These kids love their dad! 

Our hole has started:)

Poor grandma gets no break from these stink bugs. They just adore her and want to be right by her side.

Drake's preschool graduation



Drake's preschool class. There is actually a morning and afternoon class in here, so only half of these kids were in his class. It was a Hawaiian beach theme!



Drake's part was saying and signing all the colors of the rainbow. It was so sweet and the perfect part for him since his sister signs. It made me tear up:)

Here is the video....

 

 



These are his best buddies from school... Quinton, Mason, and Boston. It is so sad that they will be separated next year because they are such close friends. Boston and Drake will go to the same school, but the others will be different schools:(

Our cute little preschool graduate. We are so proud of him. He has become very smart and is such a kind little boy. I am so sad preschool is over and I don't want him going to the big school. I sure wish my kids could stay small forever and I could protect them from everything!



Laynie loved watching all the kids sing. Next year she will be our little preschooler!



Drake was very excited to give his teacher, Miss Kymm a pot of flowers and a card that he made for her.

Kymm is the sweetest teacher. She is so much fun and so sweet to the kids. Drake has loved her. She was willing to take Laynie next year but we couldn't work out with the state for Laynie's nursing so she has to go to the district preschool.

We will all miss you Miss Kymm!!!

Family pic with our graduate!

Mother's Day 2014

Mother's Day is definitely one of my favorite days of the year!!!! Being a mom is my biggest pride and joy and I also have 3 AMAZING moms in my life!!!

 

Me and my beautiful momma

Trevor and his mother

Me and my step-mom

These little people are my world, along with their dad:) Being a mom is the best gift in life. I enjoy it so very much. It is crazy how these young and little people can completely change your life for the better. I love you Drake and Laynie... and soon to be baby girl!!!

Life lately.... moving!

Our life has been busy lately..... we moved about a week ago. We listed our house on Zillow and it sold rather quickly. We are now living with my mom and are planning to build again. We didn't want anything way bigger we just needed a different layout and a little more room with our baby coming and Laynie still getting night nursing. In our new place Laynie will be able to have her own room with her nurse and we can have our master bedroom back. We are excited:) It was really sad to leave this house because we loved it and love the neighborhood. Poor Drake was especially sad, but it makes things easier that we are living with grandma for awhile!!! We are very grateful we have a place to stay for the summer. Moving while 9 months pregnant was quite the task, but we are done and we made it through!!! I thought for sure it was going to put me into labor. haha

We will miss you cute house!!!!!

I had to take the Laynie to the doctor last week because she got really sick and was in the beginning stages of pneumonia and Drake got quite the surprise as he tagged along. He got his kindergarten shots. I was so worried he would have a huge meltdown and tantrum, but not one fit or tear was shed. He was brave and did awesome:) He has really grown up a lot lately and is the SWEETEST little boy ever. He really looks after his pregnant mamma and makes sure he is really helpful to me. It has been so sweet to watch!

The brave boy was bribed with a trip to Toys R Us and that sure made his day!

The kids think its like going on a ride at Disneyland to mow the lawn with dad. It's pretty cute!

 

Laynie has been busy with appointments lately. We are trying to squeeze them all in before we have her baby sister. Her cardiology appointment went awesome this week. She was given a great report on her heart and does not need to go back to the Cardiologist for 2 years. We are so thankful for her strong heart, because so many of her CHARGE friends deal with very serious heart problems and she does not- thankfully!!!!

Easter Sunday

We had a beautiful Easter Sunday!!! We lucked out and actually got a nice sunny day:)

The night before, we decorated some eggs!

And made them nice and pretty...

The Easter bunny visited and spoiled the kids and hid some eggs!

 

We went over to my mom and Leo's for Easter brunch. She made a feast of delicious breakfast food! It was so delicious! We also had an egg hunt for the kids and it was pretty fun to watch!

I am so grateful for my little family... we will be getting our newest family member very soon (about 6 more weeks). I am enormous these days and I am excited to meet our little girlie!

 I sure love this guy!!!!

 All the kids ready to hunt for those eggs!!!!

 Those eggs got hunted.....

After brunch we hurried ourselves to church. I tried to teach Drake about the true meaning of Easter earlier in the week and I think he understands a little. In primary they were teaching the kids that after we are resurrected we will have perfect bodies free from sickness and problems. I am so thankful for this.... I am so thankful that our little Laynie will have a body free from all the hardships, pain, and problems she deals with every day! I am grateful for the Savior and that He made it all possible!!!

Then we went over to Trevor's parent's for dinner. We were lucky enough to have two huge feasts that day! The kid's had a blast playing with all their cousins and we had a wonderful Easter!

Girl's stay-cation and First day of soccer

Last weekend we had a girl's stay-cation! We were going to go to Salt Lake but we couldn't find a weekend that would work well for everyone and I am getting rather huge so we needed to plan it sooner rather than later... so we partied in IF!!!! We shopped, ate, went to a movie, tried not to get too wild at the Shilo Inn nightclub, and stayed up late chatting and laughing! Thanks for such a fun weekend girls!

Our little soccer stud started spring soccer last weekend. Spring soccer is going to be cold and windy, but we are crossing our fingers we get a few nice days. Drake is playing with his buddies Mason and Quinton again! Their team name is FLASH!!!!

Laynie had a ball playing with the soccer ball. She loves it! Maybe next year she can play:)

1 Year Hearing Birthday and Appointments

Today is Laynie's 1 YEAR HEARING BIRTHDAY!!!! Her cochlear implant got activated 1 year ago today. We have taken our longest break ever from Primary Children's and it has been amazing!!! We went back for some appointments (ENT and audiology) this week. It was fun to see the progress she has made in a year on her audiogram. She did amazing in the sound booth. It was so adorable watching her get excited when she would hear the sounds. I can't believe I would ever be saying this, but Laynie is hearing in the normal range with her cochlear implant. She doesn't hear anything with her left ear, so overall she doesn't hear normally, but out of her right ear she does. I am so happy for her! The big problem though is that she still isn't understanding speech. We don't know if this is because she was implanted a little later than the ideal time, or if she just needs more time. We don't know if she will ever understand speech, but we definitely hope she will. Just in the last week she did respond to "bath". I asked her if she wanted to take a bath and she signed bath. Other than that, the only other words that I know she understands is her name and Drake's name. She does understand a few other sounds, like my phone, dogs barking, music, etc... A year ago when we were deciding to get her a CI or not, the doctor told us that she may only hear environmental sounds and not ever understand speech. I was not okay with that... I thought it wasn't worth getting her a CI if that was all she could understand. Now, even though she only understands a few things (mostly environmental sounds) I am soooooo glad she has a cochlear implant. Watching her hear things and react brightens all of our days! It is a night and day difference when her CI is on and not on. Just having her be able to respond to her name and look at me and then I can sign to her is so helpful and awesome:)

Here is the link to the blog post about her activation day 1 year ago. That was still one of the best days of my life:)
I am excited to watch her progress over the next year. Happy Hearing Birthday Laynie!!!!

Her ENT appointment went well also. Her doctor wants to do a scope to check out her airway during her next surgery (this summer). He might remove some scar tissue or upsize her trach and just check to see how her airway is doing and if it has improved or not. He will also put in ear tubes. Her tonsils also will need to come out sometime because they are enormous, but it's not a big hurry because she does have a trach. But they will have to come out if her trach ever comes out. It doesn't seem like her doctor has any hopes or plans for the trach coming out for a really long time. It might not ever come out. It is kind of discouraging, but at the same time it is just a part of her now and it would be scary not to have it. I will just keep dreaming that that day will happen sometime!!!


We went to Scheels in between appointments and Laynie had a blast and Trevor was in heaven also:) She loved the fish and we took her on her first ride, the ferris wheel. She loved it all:)

Overall, Miss Laynie Bug is doing amazing! The fact that we stayed away from Primary Children's for the whole winter shows how great she is doing! We are proud of her and look forward to the awesome stuff she is going to show us next!!!!!

Dancing Queen...

This chick LOVES to dance!!!! Her obsession with The Fresh Beat Band is STILL as strong as ever and she loves to dance to their songs. I LOVE that she can now hear the music to dance to it!!!

Just cause...