Easter

Easter was a great time for us! Celebration of Jesus and his sacrifice and the celebration of new life in our family. We went to the Grapevine botanical gardens to try and capture our kids personality and we did......

Started out pretty well..... Untill Riley saw what she called a fly...it was a gnat

She was done at that point, maybe two minutes into it, I love Cameron's face here

He did great

He was trying so hard at the end of the day he said "Mommy I don't want to sit by Riley EVER again"

Since we have been home

Things have been rough to say the least since we have been home. I am so lucky that Ryan has a job that 1. he enjoys and 2. he can be at home a lot and still work. He was able to take two weeks off while I recover and unfortunately it has taken me a lot longer this time. A week ago I started to run a very high fever and was admitted back into the mother baby unit. It was a very scary time for me because we didn't know what was cause the fever. My mind immediately goes to the TV show House and I begin to think the worst. They checked everything including to make sure the Dr. didn't leave gauze inside me! Everything was coming back normal so after a two day stay they concluded that I either had an infection due to the surgery or a virus. I have really been taking it easy the past few days and feel so much better, still a little sore but definitely on the mend!

The kids are doing great with the new baby and Baby Bradford is thriving in his new environment. He weights 9lbs 3oz and is now 21 inches long! Here are some pictures since we have been home.....it has been difficult to get the camera out lately because it seems like we always forget but we have managed a few.
The day I got out of the hospital Ryan's family was celebrating Ryan's Grandmother's Birthday. She got to meet her newest Great-Grandchild
Bradford's first bath.....it was not as bad as I thought

This was after Bradford's first bath he has really cool hair


Daddy and his son

Catch up time

Not much happened from Christmas till Bradford so I will start with Bradford's arival!

On Thursday February 5th I went to my doctor with every intention of trying to convince him to let me have my baby that day. Little did I know my plan would actually work! I must have looked really pathetic because he told me we could do it that day! So Riley and I headed over to the 2nd floor in the hospital to get things going. I was by myself that day and immediately called Ryan and my Mom to tell them to get here NOW! By the time they got there we were in our room and Riley had only pressed the nurse call button three times! Dr. Sims had scheduled me for around 5 so we had all day to wait. Around 4 my Mom brought the kids up and we spent a few minutes together as a family of four!

Around six they came and got us and said they were ready to go! So off we went to have our third and final Maxwell! The C-section went great.....as well as having major surgery could go. Bradford Joel Maxwell was born at 6:18pm weighing a whopping 8lbs 3oz and measuring 20 inches long. It took a while to get back to my room because I could not stop shaking from the medicine so by the time I returned to the room it was close to 8pm. We had lots of friends and family there to greet us!



The next days in the hospital were spent recovering and spending time with our new little man.

Fall Christmas

We had a "Fall Family" Christmas party at my Mom's house. Everyone was there which was great! My kids had a lot of fun playing with my cousin Erica's boys. We took a group photo and even "retook" a photo from 15+ years ago, we all stood in the same spot and that turned out great. I am sure my Grandmother was in Heaven with a tape recorder and loving every minute of it. She would have been so happy to see us all together laughing and eating!!! Of course she would have loved to see the little ones running around with all of their energy. Santa came and of course Riley was scared our of her mind. But she did love the toys Santa brought, she got a couple of dolls a really cute bear and a stroller. Cameron loves all of his toys and spent the entire day today playing with them all!!! What a memorable afternoon!

25 Members of the "greatly extended" Fall Family

9 Grandkids

Riley showing off her Baby

Santa

Riley is not a Santa fan

Santa and Cowboys

The weekend was nice despite me catching a cold. Saturday was spent organizing the house and getting it ready to put on the market the friday after Christmas so get in line folks this one could go fast HA!!!
Sunday morning we got up and went to church to eat breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus. The kids loved eating of course, and I think Cameron had a total of four pancakes and Riley had two and a plate full of eggs. Santa was great and spent some time with Cameron talking to him about what he wanted for Christmas although he couldn't garuntee a Cowboys Super Bowl he promised to try. Riley did not take to Santa to well and took one look at him and immediately started screaming. I ended up sitting next to her so we could get a nice picture.





That afternoon Ryan and I headed out to the Cowboys game against the Giants. We bought new sweatshirts for the occasion and were very excited to wear them, unfortunately it was 70 degrees most of the time. The Cowboys won and we had a great time meeting people and tailgating with fans. We sat in front of a guy who very much resembled Tony Romo so of course I had to get a picture with him! By the end of the game we were very happy that we brought our sweatshirts because a cold front hit and it was 40 degrees walking to our car.....talk about a change in weather! I was a little sad being our last game at Texas Stadium but we are looking forward to the new home of the Cowboys!

This past week

The last half of the week was jam packed.......
Thursday morning I was admitted to the hospital because I was unable to keep food down, was dehydrated and having mild contractions. They ended up keeping me for observation, which was tough on Ryan having to work and handle the kids but fortunately for us we have an amazing support group of family and friends, my mom stayed with me the whole time, Ryan's parents took Cameron to school and picked him up and cleaned the house, and Allison managed FIVE kids by herself all day Friday so I could recover!!!!
Saturday was promised to the kids for about a month now and we had plans all day for activities for them, so we kept our commitment. The morning was spent at Uncle Kent's firehouse where Santa and Mrs. Clause landed in a helicopter! The kids did great they both saw santa and of course Cameron told him everything he wanted for christmas.



We headed home and Ryan headed out to the neighborhood we want to live in to take a look at the house we want to make and offer on and we decided that Monday December 9th we are going to start negotiations!!!!! That evening was spent at the North Pole Express where we saw many trains, and got to ride the train which was a blast for the kids....Santa made an appearance there too!!!
Here is Cameron driving the train!

Riley was a dancing machine all night!!


The only pic you will see of me for a while ; )

Eyes of wonderment

My current favorite picture of Riley and Daddy


Everyone was so happy!!!



The kids don't look like themselves here but I love this picture


It snowed that day!!!!

Thanksgiving weekend

OK OK so it has been a while but we have had so much going on so here it goes........

Thanksgiving was wonderful of course, we started the day with a trip to the park with Uncle Kent and Ryan and the kids really enjoyed playing of course.


we had a fun time at Grammie and Yoda's eating, laughing and watching football. Cameron and Riley ate their weight in ham and turkey. Then we headed off to see Grandpa and Doris and the kids were being very cute hanging together on the couch.




That night I went to spend the night at my Mom's to be ready for our "annual shopping trip." We woke up at 2am and headed to Grapevine Mills Mall for some great bargins. We also went to Kohl's and Babies R' Us....we were done shopping by 730am and headed home for a nice nap!!!
We rounded out the weekend by playing some Wii and watching the Sooner beat OSU!!