Today

Today Iam feeling so blessed, grateful, and loved.

I love my sweet family.

(Note: I'm pretty sure our computer is going to blow up one of these days when I turn it on. Updates are short and few and far between. Know that things are great in the MacGillivray household. Quinn is a whopping 8lbs at 4 weeks and Dax has started kindergarten. Things are exciting and I am enjoying it all!)

just thinking

Just thinking how today was my due date. I can't imagine. I'm so happy to be holding her instead. Watching her sleep. Falling more and more in love. Life is so good.

Welcome

Quinn Emerson MacGillivray

Born July 10, 2011

12:09pm

6 pounds 14 ounces

19 1/2 inches

Remember the paper chain from last post? It haunts me.

How do you explain to your boys when you call them from the hospital that even though there are still 17 links left, their baby sister is coming that day. It was very confusing for them. And a huge surprise for us. Here's how it all went down...

The Saturday before Quinn arrived could not have been any more perfect. Well, except that we greeted the day with 113 degrees of blazing heat. I have decided that being that pregnant in Arizona in July is super un-cool. I won't really try to do that ever again. Regardless, we packed the boys up and headed to see Cars 2. We had some fun in the Disney Store afterwards where we felt the need to spoil our boys; something we never do just for the heck of it. Then we headed around town to do some back to school shopping. Our great friends who were out of town offered us their pool (thank goodness), so we spent the rest of the day swimming and relaxing. Austin made a wonderful barbeque dinner and the boys were so wiped out they were asleep in a flash. Austin and I stayed up late preparing for our Sunday responsibilities and I remember thinking how glad I was that we had such a wonderful day as a family a four. Because soon, all that was going to change. Little did I know it would be that night; 17 days earlier than expected.

You know how they say that change in crazy weather and the barometric pressure sends preggos like me into labor? Well, it's totally true. I fell asleep that night to a classic Arizona July monsoon.

I woke up at 12:45 am to my water breaking. Yup, I'm three for three in that department. I don't mind...as long as I'm at home when it happens. For the record, I'm three for three there too.

We weren't packed. I had no bag ready. Other than that, I was 100% ready. I was excited and nervous and so anxious to see my little lady. I kissed me two little children for the last time before welcoming another, and we headed to the hospital.

For the most part, the hospital was pretty uneventful. Austin was pretty ticked that our room wasn't equipped with ESPN and he was missing the Women's World Cup Soccer game. You'll never know how boring it is to watch 120 minutes of soccer on live stream Internet with sentence updates popping up every 10 minutes. Thankfully we (as in the USA soccer team) got the win just before the baby was born and Austin playfully suggested Wambach for a middle name. I didn't think it was funny.

The delivery went flawlessly and in less than 10 minutes after kicking out all our visitors I was holding the newest member of our family. Nothing explains the moment where you hold your baby for the first time. She was perfect. She is perfect. She is beautiful. And yes, she is all ours. Can you believe that dark hair?! Not the blonde piggy tails I was imagining, but by far the cutest thing I've ever seen. We're obsessed with her. All of us.

I'm so beyond grateful for our family of five.

Coming Soon

Pictures of our precious lady coming soon.

We're too busy staring at her. And cooing over her. And checking on her. And playing with her hair. And kissing her.

We're in love. She's a doll.

Hello July, hello baby!

Dearest Sweet Pea,

This is the month we've been waiting for. Hurry little darling, hurry.

Much love,

Your Family

P.S Please don't even think about trying for an August birthday. xoxoxo

take me back

I love Arizona. I really do. But when temperatures are pushing 117 degrees, breaking all sorts of records, and it's only June, I kinda get crabby. Way more pictures to come from our awesome beach trip, but I couldn't help look at these, close my eyes real tight, and let my imagination take me back there.

And then the sweat dripped down over my pregnant belly and I was reminded instantly right where I was. Ugh!

Final Countdown

Swollen ankles: check

Leg cramps: check

Varicose veins: check

Backache: check

Sleepless nights: check

Continued cravings: check

Continued late night snacks: check

Continued weight gain: check, check and check

Weekly appointments: check

Frequent bathroom breaks: check

115 degree weather: Unfortunately, check

Daily dips in the pool: Thankfully, check

Hospital pre-registration: check

Nursery complete: check

Two big brothers who play in the nursery all day long: check

lil' sis

I may be partial, but I am pretty sure she is already feeling lucky to have these little goof balls as her big brothers.

I'm kinda lucky myself.

Fish-y

After two weeks of swim and only one day of hysterics, we officially have ourselves a fish. A "lion"fish to be exact. Go figure. A heated pool and temperatures near 100, you can't go wrong. Thank you Miss Pam!

Side note: Sorry for the picture overload. The camera has been tucked away way too long and I couldn't contain myself.

Dreamer

My sweet Dax has always had a wonderful imagination. He loves to read and drift off into the wonderful world of make believe. My friend said to me once that she can just picture a Dax-ish cartoon theme song running through his head as he plays. He is so much fun to watch run around and see his mind run wild. It makes it so much fun to play with him. He often has me pinned as a wild animal, a superhero in disguise, a submarine man exploring the ocean he has created, and a taste tester of all his magnificent cakes, to name just a few. My favorite though is to hear the latest of his many dreams when he gets bigger. Usually, bigger means the ripe old age of thirteen. Let me tell you, this boy has some major things to accomplish by age thirteen, but that's a whole different post.

The other day he was laying in the grass staring up at the clouds dreaming away. He propped himself up on one elbow and looks right at me and says, "Mom, I know something that will make you happy." I was curious. I asked him what it was. He said, "When I grow up I want to be a surfer and a Missionary."

I couldn't be prouder of my little guy. He was right; that did make me happy. I want him to keep dreaming, imagining and making goals for himself and do the things he loves. I want him to be anything he wants to be and to work hard to be the very best at it. I know this idea of "what you want to be when you grow up" will change many, many, many times over the course of his life, but I had to tell him that he was one of those things already, and I hope that never changes.

I love this boy.

Baby Cakes

Over here we're getting ready for our baby girl. We're all pretty smitten with her already. We've painted the room, we've taken polls on her eye color (Wyatt thinks red), we've decided where she will sit at the dinner table (a major concern of Dax's), we're car hunting (seriously...dreadful), we're (as in me) are shopping for anything pink, we're (as in Austin) just keeps rolling his eyes at anything I purchase in pink, and we're excited as can be to have "three boys and two girls" in the family.

Except we're NOT okay in one area. She is nameless. Utterly, completely, nowhere close, to having a name. I tend to lean a little more towards traditional names. On the other hand, Austin doesn't want a name where he knows anyone with it. You wouldn't think, but that causes quite a discrepency. We have no list. We each have one we like. And right now Austin's front runner is Torrance.

I beg you, give me some suggestions to help me convince him to name her anything but Torrance.

Ready or Not

We Arizonians have welcomed the month of April with a high of 98 degrees. Seriously?! We're four days into the month! We've already dug out the bathing suits, sunscreen, Toy Story 3 slip n' slide and water balloons. But let's be real, they weren't packed away that far...this is Arizona after all and the start to a long, long summer.

You see, because the start of April means the start of my third trimester. It's only been four days of the retched heat and I've already considered wearing mumu's.

That's totally acceptable for a woman under the age of eighty, right?

hmmmm.

What should a mother do when her three year old's favorite phrase is booyah.

Booyah. Really?

Awesome.