Twins???

Everyone said I looked like I was having twins...




Could they have been right???





Can you believe how alike they look???



Here's a few pictures of our sweeties...

Jadyn's birth story

When I found out I was pregnant, the one thing I wanted most was to try to deliver naturally since I had an elective C-Section with Haylee and felt like I missed out on childbirth. For that reason we decided to go off base to a hospital in Cambridge where they would allow me to to try natural delivery. It was a scary decision being in a new country, not knowing what to expect but it was the most incredible thing I could have ever done!
As usual, things didn't go quite as planned. My due date was Oct. 18th so my mom flew here on the 16th and we all prayed that Jadyn wouldn't decide to come before that. 2 days after I was due I had a midwife check and found out that my body wasn't progressing at all towards labor and if she didn't come on her own, they would induce me the following Wednesday, the day before my mom was scheduled to leave! So we spent the next week trying to walk the baby out, smoke the baby out with spicy foods, drink gallons of Raspberry leaf tea, take Evening primrose oil, eat licorice, and after all of that, just relax and somehow not fret about it.
We had one false alarm on Friday night where I started having contractions about 5 minutes apart and decided to drive the hour to the hospital at 3am to see if I was in labor. After staying for about 4 hours, I was sent home but thankfully they did a membrane sweep to help things along a little. After that night the contractions I was having started feeling a little more intense and not so much like Braxton Hicks so I hoped things would start happening soon! Monday morning the contractions really started to hurt so I called the hospital and told them that I was having painful contractions but they weren't very regular and was told that I probably wasn't quite in labor, that the contractions probably weren't doing much and that real labor would be much more painful. Lots of good news! So we decided to do one more trip and took mom to the cathedral in Ely. I was still hurting pretty bad when we got home and had dinner but was determined not to go to the hospital until I knew that I was in labor. We went to bed but I couldn't go to sleep because the contractions started coming every 5 minutes so about midnight we decided we needed to go. By the time we got to the hospital, they were coming every 3 minutes and I was in a lot of pain.
I got settled in the room about 1am and the midwife checked me and I was 4-5cm dilated, my cervix was so thin she couldn't hardly even feel it and Jadyn's head was extremely low. I was so excited I almost started to cry!! After that everything went into fast forward...I decided to use the bathroom one more time before she did my IV and when I was walking back to bed, the feel of the contraction changed and I felt a lot more pressure. I got into bed and she tried to do the IV but couldn't thread it through my vein so she was going to try again. As soon as she pulled it out, my water broke and I had the strongest urge to push. I told her that I couldn't handle the pain anymore and wanted gas and air so she tried to get it hooked up for me but the baby was coming so fast that it ended up being tossed aside. I did about 10 pushes and within just a few minutes Jadyn was out and on my chest. It was the most intense, painful and overwhelming thing I have ever experienced and I don't think there is any way to ever prepare you for it. Your body literally just takes over and you have no choice but to listen and just remember that the harder you push, the sooner you will be done. I actually smiled through my last push because I knew it was about to be over and she would be here. I am so excited that I was able to do it all natural with no pain relief and was actually very thankful I didn't get any gas and air because I needed to be fully coherent to push.
Jadyn came out absolutely perfect and is a very healthy 8lbs 5oz and 20 1/2 inches long. She has really dark, almost black hair and I'm hoping she actually keeps some of it!!! She has really long fingers and toes and has quite the set of lungs on her!!! She is sleeping really well and only waking up once or twice to eat during the night. She looks so much like Haylee when she was born and Haylee couldn't be more excited about her little sissy. She kisses and loves on her as much as she can and loves to hold her and help me take care of her. I'm excited and very scared about next week when John's parents head home, John goes back to work and I am on my own with the two of them. But I am definitely ready to get into a normal routine again and be a fully recovered mommy!! I'm just so thankful I was able to have the delivery I wanted and even though it was the most scary and intense thing I've ever experienced, I would choose natural delivery over C-Section any day.

Jadyn Nicole Gardner, born October 27 at 2:31am, 8lbs 5oz.

My baby is 2!!!!

Haylee turned 2 last Friday and we had a whirlwind of a weekend with birthday festivities. Friday night we had some friends over for a bbq and Haylee (with lots of help from her friend Evey) opened more gifts than any 2 year old could ever need. They were too much fun to watch! Then we cut into the beautiful Minnie Mouse cake that Catherine and I made and let Haylee dig into her little cake. We were once again hoping that she would get all messy with it but she quickly informed us that it was too messy and requested a fork...She did at least mutilate the cake and we got some good pictures of that.
The next morning we headed to Banham zoo with Lynda and Evey and the girls had a blast seeing all the animals. They are quite the pair, they always have to hold hands when they walk together and they always want to do what the other is doing. After about 5 hours at the zoo (I am very proud that at 37 weeks pregnant I can still do that much walking!) we headed home and relaxed for the evening. I think all the excitement finally hit Haylee on Sunday night and she passed out at 6:30pm and didn't wake up until 7 the next morning! And on top of that, she took a 2 hour nap, a rare occurrence these days.

It still hasn't sunk in that my baby just turned 2 and I'm not sure I'm ready for it to...I think having the new baby on the way is helping me accept her growing up a little. Her 2 year checkup was this morning and everything is great! She is above average with her development and is 23lbs and 33 inches long. She seems to be getting taller but doesn't stop long enough to gain any weight! She is speaking in full sentences when she wants to and every morning I wake up to her yelling "Done in bed mommy, done in bed!!" There's definitely not a dull moment around our house!

Jadyn should be here in the next couple weeks and although no one thinks she will last until my due date, I'm really hoping she waits until my mom gets here on the 16th! I am GIGANTIC and ready to be done but it makes me kinda sad thinking about this pregnancy being over. I've really tried to enjoy it since I know how small of a part of parenthood it really is and it has been worth every moment of discomfort. We will keep you updated as my due date gets closer and we will soon have pictures of our new little miracle!!!

It's always an adventure when Megan comes to visit!!!

While Haylee naps *crossing my fingers that she's actually asleep* I figured I'd take my chance to recap my visit with Megan, my best friend from high school. We took her to the 2 sights that we have to take everyone-London and Cambridge- and they were fun trips but the real adventure was our girls weekend...

We wanted to take a big weekend trip to somewhere we hadn't been before so we decided to head west to see Stonehenge, Bath, Oxford and Warwick Castle. John found out that he had weekend duty so it became a girl's trip and I would have to be the only driver. I have done my fair share of driving here so I wasn't too worried but still not thrilled that there was no one to share the responsibility with. I learned a very important lesson on this trip...no matter how much you plan something, it will NEVER turn out the way you expect!!! It can be frustrating but it can also end up being the most unexpected adventure you could ever imagine...

I had carefully mapped out our trip, set our Navigon to exactly where all we would go, booked our hotels, and written down how far it was to each sight, how long it would take, total trip time and all the info we would need. (I know, I'm a freak when it comes to planning trips) So the plan for the first day was to leave at 9am, get to Stonehenge by 11:30, spend about 30 minutes there and get to Bath by 1 so that we could see everything before the town closed down at 5pm. We were on our way by about 9:30 and everything was going great until about 2 miles from Stonehenge. We hit terrible traffic going down the hill and were stuck in it for 45 minutes. People were walking by faster than we were driving...finally we made it and paid 6.50 pounds each (about $10) to go see this arrangement of rocks. Haylee was thrilled to be out of the car and didn't want to stay with me so I spent most of the time trying to keep hold of her while we made our way through the endless people, all trying to take pictures and blocking our way. It was a neat sight to see and I'm glad I can say that I've been there but as I had heard before, it's not a place you make a day of. It's best if you plan to see it on the way to somewhere else, which is exactly what we did. By this point it was already about 2:30 and we were eager to head the short distance to Bath.

After a quick lunch we got back in the car and were thrilled when the Navigon had me take a left out onto the road, away from the horrible traffic. Our excitement quickly vanished when we got down about 2 miles, hit a roundabout and the Navigon took me all the way around it, right back into that dreaded line of cars with nowhere else to go. So there we sat for another 45 minutes, cursing the stupid GPS and laughing at our luck.


We finally saw our first glimpse of Bath around 5pm and what a sight it was! It's a Roman city built up on a hill that looks like it belongs in Greece or Italy, not England. We were so excited to get to the Park & Ride and take the bus into town to go explore. As we pulled into the city, Haylee started crying because she needed a diaper change and I started telling her, "Don't worry sweetie, we're almost there". Little did I know...we drove down a hill into the city and got stuck behind about 15 cars at a stop light. Now, one thing I have learned about British driving is that they don't know how to use stop lights because they are very rare here. Instead they use roundabouts which they do very well with, but they seem to get very confused at stop lights. We sat there for about 20 minutes and I watched the light turn green a few times with only 1 or 2 cars going through and realized that this could take forever. So I decided to turn left instead and thankfully the Navigon rerouted us and we thought we were on our way. Not the case...I specifically remember telling Megan that I did NOT want to go up the hill towards the residential area because it was very steep, very narrow, and there was lots of rush hour traffic. About 2 minutes later, the Navigon told me to make a left and I headed straight up the hill, exactly where I said I didn't want to go. I started freaking out, Haylee was still crying because she needed her diaper changed, and Megan got out her video camera and taped the whole thing.

I finally made it up this crazy hill and was then told to continue up past the houses where the road became barely big enough for me to fit, let alone be the 2 lane road that it was supposed to be. On top of that, there were trees lining both sides of the road so there was no way to see around all the turns in case someone was going to run me over. After a few minutes we saw a little cut out in the road and I was able to pull over, change Haylee's diaper and catch my breath. It ended up being a really beautiful area overlooking Bath and I'm pretty sure we got to see a part of Bath that not many people get to experience. We got lucky and saw a lady walking so I stopped her and asked if she knew where we needed to go. Turned out, we were only about a mile from the Park & Ride that we were trying to find! So we headed up the rest of that tiny road and finally made it to our destination.

It was about 5:45 by that point and we didn't even care what else we saw in Bath, we just wanted to get some food and I didn't want to drive! We got on the bus and headed into town and were able to do the City Sightseeing bus tour, the one thing we had planned on doing there, so the trip wasn't a total bust. The tour was very relaxing and we were the only ones on it which was really nice. After spending about 2 hours in town we headed to our hotel and relaxed for the night.

The next day was our day in Oxford and I'm very happy to say that it was a lot less stressful than the previous day. We slept in, took our time getting there, had no problem finding the Park & Ride and found a nice sit down restaurant for lunch. The only drawback was that it rained on and off all day but I prefer the rain to heat any day. We did a little shopping and then hopped on the bus tour around the city. Megan, who is already obsessed with Oxford, fell even more in love with the city and decided that she was going to move there. And I would love to have her that close!! We spent about 4 hours in the city and decided to go ahead and go to our hotel to relax for the evening. That was the best idea we had all weekend!

Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and headed to Warwick. The drive was once again very uneventful, thank God, and we made it to the castle by 10:30 or 11. We toured one of the indoor parts of the castle and then decided to go up the Mound, the oldest part of the castle dating back to 1608. It's quite a walk up this hill and there are lots of stairs but John and I had done it before and I knew that we could handle it. Haylee even held my hand and walked up all the steps herself! After we got back down, we went over to another part like the Mound (or so we thought) and decided to try it. Now, our first clue that it may not have been the best idea was the warning out front that said it was 530 steps (doesn't sound that bad, does it?), there's only one way out and that's on the other side and that you shouldn't try it if you are elderly or have health problems. Well, I may be 7 months pregnant but I'm not elderly or have health problems and I apparently think I'm super woman so we headed up the steps. The first part wasn't so bad and we got a gorgeous view of the town of Warwick and then we headed down the first spiral staircase. Now, mind you, I have a huge belly that I was trying to balance and Megan was carrying Haylee the whole way because these spirals we had to climb were really narrow and not big enough to let her walk. So we went up and down about 20 (or so it seemed) spiral staircases, thinking that it would never end. I'm happy to say that it did eventually take us back to the ground and we all survived. And even though the climbing was rough, I thought it was worth it because of the amazing view we got from the top.

We spent a couple more hours at the castle and decided it was time to head home. Unfortunately, the trip was destined to have more bad luck as Megan ended up getting very dehydrated and sick on the way home. I'm thankful she didn't puke in my car but hated seeing her sick. We were thrilled when we arrived home and spent her last 24 hours here doing absolutely nothing. I had a really great time with Megan and am so thankful she made the trip out here. Hopefully we will be visiting her in Oxford soon! As long as she doesn't move to Bath because I don't know that I would be willing to visit her there...

Venezia pictures

Venezia!!!!

There is not enough time in the world to completely recap our incredible anniversary trip so instead I thought I would make a list of what I learned in Venezia. What an amazing city!!!

1. Venice is HOT in July!!! Be prepared to sweat a lot...but you are too busy taking in the sights to really care.
2. There are pushy guys all over the city trying to force flowers in your face for a ridiculous price. If you let them hand you one you're screwed. You basically have to be just as rude back just to get them to leave you alone.
3. A gondola ride at sunset is just as relaxing as an hour long massage. Definitely worth 100 euro!!!
4. There is NOTHING better than authentic Italian cuisine. My new favorite dish is linguine with salmon and a creamy red sauce. Lemon gelato is a lifesaver when it's blazing hot out and easy to find no matter where you're at.
5. Getting lost in Venice is a blast. We wandered the back streets, away from the crowds and saw a part of Venice not many people see. My favorite part of the whole trip was when we were wandering around and found a little pizza stand on a street corner. We got pepperoni and ham pizza served on a piece of paper and sat on the ground in a gorgeous neighborhood to eat it. It was so peaceful and quiet.
6. The Vaporetto (water bus) is wonderful! We rode it all around the city and got to take in the sights without killing our feet.
7. San Marcos square is really fun at night. We spent about $50 both nights on a dessert and snack so we could sit and listen to the live music. Restaurants line the square and each one has a band and they all compete with each other. We liked to sit at the edge of one so we had a view of a couple different ones. The music was beautiful and the food was delicious. It's worth the money just for the experience.
8. There are about a million shops and carts selling souvenirs all over the city. Don't just accept the price they ask, if you hesitate at all they will lower it until you buy. It's really fun to haggle with them and you can get a great deal on stuff.
9. Murano glass is gorgeous and available all over the island. Another specialty is hand painted masks. Some are beautiful and some are really creepy...
10. St. Mark's Basilica is amazing. We toured the inside and went up to the very top and looked out over the square. What a view!!!
11. Murano Island is a lot of fun. We got to watch them blow the glass and they had the real fancy glass shops which were fun to look in.
12. If you can handle the heat and walking, pregnancy is the best time to go to Venice! I only paid to use the restroom twice because all the restaurants let me use theirs whether or not we ate there. I got to use the private lift at the basilica and they let me use the bathroom that was supposed to be closed. People were really nice about offering me their seat on the bus and the waiters didn't have a problem with me putting my feet up at the restaurants. Italian men are really sweet to pregnant women!
13. Pigeon's really like to dive bomb people in the square. Funny to watch but not funny to experience...
14. Venice is 1000 times more amazing than you can ever imagine. There is just no way to describe the culture, beauty, history, uniqueness and charm of the city. It was the perfect way to celebrate our 3rd anniversary!!!
15. It was SOOO good to get home to our precious little girl! We really missed her!

Excited big sissy!

Just wanted to share a picture of Haylee's new "big sis" shirt. She is so excited about this new baby and has been practicing how to take care of her with her dolly. I will try to put a video up of her in action here but if it doesn't work, just go to http://www.youtube.com/user/haylee092507 to see it. We have finally agreed on the name Jadyn Nicole!! She is already quite the gymast and I love sitting on the couch watching my stomach jump all over the place. Haylee loves pushing on my belly to try to get her to move and thinks that it's hilarious to pull my shirt up and say "pop" when she sees my belly button...

On a side note, please keep us in prayer as we begin to plan the next step in our life. Although the military is not in any way the direction we saw our lives going, we are really beginning to see why God put us here. We have some big plans that we are working towards putting in motion and though we are not quite ready to share them yet, we ask that you keep us in prayer that we truly seek God's direction in all of it. He has always surprised us with where He has directed our path and we can't wait to see where we end up next!!!

SURPRISE!!!!

Yesterday was our big appointment to find out what the sex of the baby is....and it's a GIRL!!!! We were honestly shocked because we have been pretty sure that it's a boy. But she was 95% sure that we're having another little girl and we are thrilled. It will be so much easier just adding to our girly collection of baby stuff and Haylee is so excited to have a new sissy. John told me that we have to eventually have a boy so I'm praying that the next one is a boy so we don't end up with 12 kids...in the mean time, I told him we can get a male dog to even it out a little.
As far as a name...we haven't quite decided for sure so until we have it set in stone we are going to keep quiet. It's been hard trying to figure it out this time! We will let you know when we know for sure!

I have to brag a little, sorry...

So John and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary next month on the 15th and we've been throwing around ideas of what to do for it. Our first choice was Paris but flights are booked for the entire month of July so we went to plan B...WE'RE GOING TO VENICE!!!!! Our flights are booked and now we just have to find a hotel and I need to go shopping for Venice clothes! Quite a step up from our last 2 anniversaries, camping at Carlsbad Caverns, NM on our first (and I was 7 months pregnant) and a weekend visiting John at Tech School in Wichita Falls, Texas last year. This year, Venice, Italy and once again I will be 7 months pregnant... =) And Haylee is staying with a friend so it will be just John and I. Probably our last trip away before our family of 3 becomes 4.
Alright, I'm done bragging...
We are still enjoying the beautiful weather here and are spending lots of time in the pool. We want to get a bigger pool so we can all sit in it but don't think we can fit it in our car to get it home. We'll find a way! We are planning on going to Oxford tomorrow so I will have pictures up soon. And Thursday we find out the sex of the little one!!!
Love you all!

Fun in the pool!

We have had absolutely beautiful weather the last few days so I decided it would be fun to get a kiddie pool for Haylee to play in. I filled it up this afternoon and we tried to play in it...the water was VERY cold so Haylee didn't get in very far but she sure had fun splashing the water! I left the water in it and I'm hoping that it will warm up by pool time tomorrow. Here's a few pictures from our fun in the sun...

She insisted on getting in while I was blowing it up

Haylee and her new pool!

She finally got in!

So I had to try it out too

Warming up afterwards

This was later this evening but it was too cute of a picture to not post =)