isla turns 1

the last time i updated was almost 6 months ago (oops).  i haven't done very well with blogging, but now that isla is sleeping and i am sleeping, i might actually have a little more time on my hands to sit down at my computer. isla is 14 months old and we celebrated her first birthday with family and some friends.  i wasn't really sure what kind of theme i wanted for her- with ian, i had thought of something pretty quickly, but i was just stumped with isla.  so i took to my best friends google and pinterest to see what ideas i could work with and i found the idea of doing an alice in wonderland (or onederland) party.  i secured invitations, outfits and then got to work with the planning.  ian and i watched alice and wonderland while i took notes of things that would be super cute.  i ended up not totally running with the theme because she's only 1 and i figured a tea party wouldn't be that interesting to a bunch of adults, but i'm still really pleased with how things turned out.  we had a good time!

 this was at home on isla's actual birthday

 birthday cake and smash cake from piece-a-cake bakery!  cake had a fudge filling.  mmm! 

 party favors for the kids.  glass jars that they could fill with candy from tea cups.  the tea cups belonged to dave's grandma.  

 cheshire cat cheese ball.  aka.  the cheese ball that lasts forever.  

 chips/salsa, layered salad and giant cheese ball.  was so nice to have a summer birthday for once, so we grilled out for everyone!  

 the birthday girl.  alice apron dress from lover dovers via etsy. 

 ready for cake!

 nom!

 we had pink flamingos lining the walk + croquet and a little this way/that way/go back sign (not pictured)

after cake we changed isla into this adorable dress (it's alice themed!) from Little LePew Apparel & and her birthday crown from mosey

i'm 1!

happy 1st birthday, isla!

isla's birth story. part 3

part 1

part 2

may is preeclampsia awareness month, and hopefully i am going to get back into the habit of being a good blogger by overloading you with lots of information!  i wanted to start by finishing isla's birth story, which is also basically our preeclampsia story. 

so where i left off was either sunday or monday... i honestly don't remember.  i know monday i was woken up the same way i was on sunday (and to follow until thursday) with a 6 am blood draw.  it was pretty much the same as my last few days- new nurses, constant blood pressure checks and contractions! 

i went back and checked and i did NOT have my epidural on sunday.  early monday (after midnight) is when pitocin was started and i was still only dilated to a 1.  my blood pressure was up and down and my energy was zapped.  by that morning, i was starving and just exhausted.  they allowed me to have the liquid diet tray to get some nutrients in me, but sitting up to eat that pretty much killed any little spurt of energy i had.  i was even more swollen from the fluids and  my lung capacity was diminishing.  my biggest concern was that i wasn't going to have the energy to deliver the baby and that i was going to need a c-section, which was the last thing i wanted. 

sometime around lunch the ob came to check me again.  i was only a 1.5.  during the check i felt a weird gush... water breaking.  the ob claims that she accidentally broke it... whether or not it was an accident, i guess i'll never know.  when that was happening, the nurse in the room had her hands on my belly and felt baby drop- so we were headed in the right direction.  i had been thinking about it, and around 1-1:30 i decided i was going to have an epidural.  i was just feeling crappy, and i figured if there was at least one thing that might make me feel better, i might as well have that.  the epidural totally changed everything.  it was more painful than the one i had with ian (which i later figured out was because with ian i had received iv drugs), but after it was done, i felt awake.  dave even said my face changed!  however, like with most pain meds, i was having a reaction and needed benedryl to counter that, which wasn't helping.  by 2:30 i was a 3, and by 3 i was a 4.  when my nurse checked me, she told me she had a meeting to go to, but would be back in a bit.  she said i was progressing around a centimeter per hour and at that rate we would have a baby by dinner time.  dave sent a text to our family and at that point i decided i was going to rest some- i had been chatting with friends on fb and i put my laptop away and tried to rest. 

i don't know how long i had been laying there (maybe 10-15 minutes) but i remembered being super uncomfortable.  like feeling really bad.  i looked over at my screen that was monitoring contractions and i could tell i was having them.  i just breathed through how bad i was feeling and i kept quiet.  around this time dave told me he was going to go into the bathroom and he joked "don't have the baby while i'm in there."  while he was in there, i had another painful contraction and decided something wasn't right, so i paged the nurses station.  when they answered i just told them that i was in a lot of pain and to come quick!  when the nurse came in, it wasn't my regular nurse and i was explaining to her that i was feeling a lot of pain, and she was telling me, "oh, you can just push this button here if you need more from your epidural."  well, during that time i had another contraction, and i told her, "no, i don't think that's it, i mean, i feel like i might need to push.  she came over and checked me and said, "oh, i can see her head!!"  everything went kind of crazy after that as there were people all over my room- 3 or 4 nurses for me, plus nurses and doctors for isla.  i remember a really tiny nurse jumping and trying to pull the lights down from the ceiling and my nurse rushing in and telling me, "i wasn't even gone for 20 minutes and you tried to have a baby without me."  and then, of course, my doctor comes in and she was furious... "why didn't anyone call me?!"  and a nurse replies, "she was a 4 just 15 minutes ago."  and poor dave when he came out of the bathroom, the look on his face just said "really?!"  it was chaotic, and they didn't have time to get everything in place, but i was ready to push.  she needed some vacuum assistance, and i screamed at my doctor, "i AM pushing" when she told me i would have to work harder or i would have to have a csection (which seems to be all the motivation i ever need).  i think i pushed maybe 5 times?  isla arrived in about 20 minutes i think, and they let me hold her right away for just a quick minute before the team whisked her over to the warmer and checked all her signs, weight etc.  she was wrapped up and given back to me for a few short photos and then whisked off to the nicu while i finished delivery.  the room was straightened up and dave and i were left a little confused and alone.  not long after that, the lc came in so i could start pumping because i was going to be unable to feed.  not too long after that the milk was collected and taken to the nicu and i was moved into another room. we had done it though!  our sweet little girl had finally arrived. 

the rest of my hospital stay is a whole 'nother entry.  maybe one day... 

isla olive mcfadden.  june 17, 2013.  3:48 pm.  4 lbs.  3 oz.  18 inches. 

if you don't like pictures of babies being born... now's the time to leave...

 poor misshapen head baby!

ian turns 4

it's hard to believe that it's been (over) 4 years since i brought my sweet little boy into this world.  he is still sweet, but no longer so little.  gah.  4?!  well, maybe he is still little... at his 4 year check-up he weighed in at 34 lbs and is 39.5" which put him in the 25-50%.  he also had a hearing test- he failed on the right ear 4 times, so we are still waiting to see what the next step will be for that.  for his actual birthday he chose to go to super bounce at the mall and then he wanted to eat chinese for dinner while watching turbo.  not a bad day for a 4 year old!

it's really amazing to see how much he's grown over the last 4 years... i mean, i can tell how much bigger he's gotten just since isla was born.  it makes my heart ache a little bit!  he doesn't like to sit still- it's been hard to get him to focus on doing learning activities- i often wonder if i'm putting him at a disadvantage by not working on these things with him, but it's hard to get him to focus.  he does know the alphabet, and he can count to 10, and he gets a little mixed up counting to 20.  he knows his name, our names, his birthday, where he lives, colors, shapes.  i have been working with him on writing his name (it's short, so it shouldn't be that hard)!  he loves to read, but usually only wants to read in his room at bedtime.  he loves playing sports, and hopefully it will be warm enough to start playing outside soon b\c this kid is dying to have some fresh air!  he loves superheroes and ninja turtles, and cars and trains and lots of boy stuff.  he loves to sing songs, and i find it amazing that he memorizes them so quickly!  he has quite a sense of humor and a kind heart.  he is a wonderful big brother and he really loves his sister so much!  he is a people pleaser and he is very stubborn.  he hates to see you mad at him, but he really just wants to have his way.  i love this kid so much!

we decided to have a ninja turtles party for his 4th birthday.  i used my dear friend pinterest for ideas and i think we put together a pretty good party, there was pizza, and hamburger cupcakes and all sorts of ninja fun!

 party favors!

 turtle lanterns

 ooze 

 ninja turtle fruit/veggie trays (we had one for all the turtles)

 hamburger cupcakes

 the birthday boy's cupcake

 

cousins!

 

 captain america

pictures from his actual birthday

 turtle power!

 isla looks like she's wondering if ian is going to shank her

and to make me cry:

 a day old

1st birthday

2nd birthday

3rd birthday!

sigh!

happy birthday

to you!

ian turns 2

ian turned 2 on january 20th, and we celebrated by throwing a little party, or 2, or 3, or....  we had a small party at my mom & dad's house while we were visiting for christmas b\c it's a good chance for us to see our friends, and ian to see his friends.  we also had a party at our house the weekend after ian's birthday with family & a few friends.

i went with a yo gabba gabba themed party for celebrate birthday number 2.  gabba is the favorite show around here these days. he loves the characters, the songs, books, etc.  plus, they're so fun and colorful- and i wanted the colors to be my inspiration for the party.  both parties differed a little- the 1st party was a little more on the theme- with themed foods, etc.  the second party was a little more about the food.  yum.

the dj lance cake!!  i wanted a rainbow cake, but when i saw the dj lance cake- i wanted a rainbow dj lance cake!!  making  rainbow cake is easy- just use a white cake mix and mix according to package directions.  take 6 bowls and fill them with mix, gradually adding more mix to each bowl.  put red dye in the smallest and work your way up to violet in the largest mixing the color in to your preference (rinse the whisk between each mix).  with this cake, i did a 9x13, with the second cake i did 2- 9".  starting with the largest- pour into the middle (don't forget to split if you do a layer cake) and give the pan a spin.  then do blue, green, yellow, orange & red- spinning after each color addition.  tent the pan with foil to prevent browning and bake according to the package directions (although you may want to take off 5-10 min. and then go from there).  you can see what it looks like below.  after i let this cake cool completely, i used the dj lance template to cut the cake.  i iced the hat portion with vanilla frosting and i iced his face w\ milk chocolate. i dyed shredded coconut orange for the hat.  i used chocolate twizzlers (i couldn't find licorice) for the glasses and i dyed vanilla frosting red for the mouth since i accidentally bought rainbow fruit roll-ups. turned out pretty nice!

we had some themed snacks at this party "plex" mix, foofa's animal friends (annie's bunnies) & dazzle berry lemonade.  dave & i even painted a brobee game- help all the food to the party in brobee's tummy!  

i also made a muno shirt using nick jr's iron on transfers (wish i had put the name on the back), and muno pretzels (turned out much better at the second party).

 ian had tons of fun running around with his buddies and opening presents!  

 and cake of course (my parents have the brightest kitchen ever)

i can't leave out that ian had a mini-party the night before with his grammie, grampie & great-grammie (they were leaving for arizona in the morning).  ian got a really cool bike- so excited for him to be a rider too!

 

mmm pie, and a cool bike!

 opening presents with mommy and getting just a little bit comfy with uncle bear.

saturday we had our big party- and since it was mostly adults, i focused more on the food than the theme.  i got most of the ideas for our spread from pinterest- seriously, i love pinterest.  such good ideas!  

top (l-r):  the spread, zippy green chile dip, 7-layer greek dip, pizza bites, pimiento cheese sandwiches

bottom (l-r): feta dip, cilantro-lime chickpea salad, italian beef sandwiches, the much improved muno pretzels and baked potato dip. 

so. much. delicious. food.  we still have leftovers- it's been 2 weeks, and that's probably gross, but it's soooo good.  and seriously- look how much better my 2nd batch of muno pretzels turned out!

aren't they so cute.  i had seen the idea for the pretzels here and thought they'd be pretty easy to re-create.  the original recipe calls for candy melts- which is what i used the first time around, but i could never get it red enough, no matter how much i dyed it.  then, when i did the candy melts this time- it burned (maybe b\c of my gas stove?)...  so we scrapped that completely and went with white baker's chocolate.  not only was it yummier, but it colored better and coated better.  the candy eyes were in the baking aisle at the grocery store- dip and dry on wax paper.  so yummy!

the rainbow cake!!

 this cake was so yummy!  since ian has permission from his allergist to eat eggs in baked form- i decided not to do any substitutions in the cake.  i did cotton candy ice cream for extra color (my no-dairy boy got blood orange & pomegranate sorbet)!

that face?  i die.

happy birthday sweet pea!