Random Pics!

Since I've been such a slacker, I thought I'd put up a few of my favorite pics from the last few months.

Jada and Chloe meeting for the first time.

At the hospital

Chloe's Blessing Dress

Mother's Day

Another Fav Bath Baby Pic

I took these pictures of Jada almost 9 months ago! Where has the time gone?

She's definitely got some natural curl!

The Bell of the Ball. Gotta love the posing. (This was at Elise's Wedding)

Giving me a break. Such a good daddy.

This picture cracks me up.

Sweetest Sisters.

The sweetest Hawaiian princess ever.

Chloe giggling

Chloe and Jada have started to develop a special bond. Chloe really lights up when Jada plays with her. I snuck up on them playing today because the giggling was so cute. I can never get Chloe to giggle this much! I guess I'm just not that funny! But Chloe thinks Jada is hilarious for some reason.

Miss Donna

This is a shout out for my wonderful neighbor, Miss Donna. We've known her for the past 6 1/2 years, she lives right across the street from us. She has been just like a Grandma to Jada and Chloe. After I had Chloe, Miss Donna filled in with preschool for me. Jada and Cami and Jasea went to her day school in the mornings where they learned science, art, pledge of allegience, cooking... so many fun things! Now that school is over, she's looking for work for the summer and already has so many fun activities and projects planned. She does babysitting and will also be doing some really fun summer classes for kids. She is extremely experienced and so loving! We love her dearly. Here's her information:

Experienced teacher offering Babysitting full time, part time, and hourly!

I have 15 years teaching experience Pre-K –thru 2^nd grade in a private Christian school as well as a preschool in my home. I also have grandma experience! We always have lots of fun activities including exploration, movement, science, one on one, art and recess. I will have no more than 5 children at a time in my home & current references are available upon request. Please call Donna at 615-302-4021.

Rates

In my home

• Full time - (7:30 AM – 4:30PM) Monday through Friday. $165.00 a week per child. Includes breakfast, lunch, & two snacks

• Part Time - (7:30 AM – 4:30PM) $40.00 per full day or $25.00 for half day. Includes breakfast, lunch, & two snacks full day; a meal & a snack half day.

• Hourly - $7.00 per hour

In your home

• Hourly (including evening & weekends) – $10.00 per hour for up to 3 children (same family). I offer an introductory hourly rate of $8.00.
  

• Weekend getaway - Friday evening (after 5 PM) thru Sunday at noon for 200.00.

Special Summer Classes $60.00 per week
Contact: Miss Donna 302-4021

Ages: 3 years old to 5 years old 6 years old to 8 years old
9:30-11:30 M-F 1:30-3:00 M-F

July 6th-10th-Cooking with kids

July 13th-17th-Down by the sea (water works included)

July 20th-24th-Bullfrogs and Butterflies

July 27th-31st-Let's scrapbook together

Here are some pictures of our class

Fun is a renewable resource!

Yea... yea....

I know. I haven't updated my blog in forever. I have so many cute pictures of the girls to put up.. I've just been lacking in sleep, motivation, energy.. ya know.. it's the new mom thang. Oh well. But despite things just not really getting done and piling up, life is good and we're looking forward to summer! Chloe is amazing. So full of smiles and starting to giggle. I can't believe she's already 3 months old already. She's a sweet heart and Jada just loves her to death. She is the best big sister. We are very surprised that she hasn't seemed the least bit jealous of Chloe. She's so proud of her and proud to be her big sister. It's so sweet. Jada is very expressive, and never shy to voice her feelings, which I think is very helpful because I think sometimes kids act out to get attention. Jada will just say that she needs some attention. And it's great.

When Chloe was newborn I was laying on my bed breastfeeding and I turned on the TV. It happened to be on discovery heath.. one of those "taking home baby" kinds of shows. And I was planning to turn the channel, but Jada said, "wait.. let's watch this." And I said.. "uh... are you sure?" So we watched this little family as they brought home their new baby and how it affected their lives. She noticed Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa.. all doing so much work just to take care of the baby. And in her cute 4 year old voice she said, "Babies take a lot of care." And I said, "Yes, it's a lot of work to take care of a baby." She's so helpful, always asking to help not just in taking care of the baby, but asking to help prepare food and clean.. she is so amazing. I feel so lucky to have two amazingly sweet little girls.

Well, hopefully I'll have some more time to keep this updated this summer. I can't believe that the school year is almost over this week! Jada, Cami, Jasea and I have all been having such a fun year. We've been doing some "informal" preschool things and activities which really has been a blast. I've loved every minute of it! And they all love each other dearly, just like sister.. actually that's usually what they call each other. It's so cute seeing them grow and bond and learn to interact with each other. They've also learned so much... it scares me a little because I just want them to stay little! But they have this love and thirst for learning that makes it so much fun to put together activities for them to do.

I also recently started another blog. Shane has been had major back pain off and on for years. And this last year has been particularly bad. He's been going to a chiropractor about 4 times a week since October and does about 1 hour worth of exercises each day to try to get it better. It's helping, but he's still in a lot of pain every day. His chiropractor says that his muscles are really inflammed for some reason. So he's going on this "anti-inflammatory" diet that Dr. Asa (who is a doctor here in Nashville) developed. It's really interesting. A lot of it is just common sense nutrition, just eating very healthy, and avoiding toxins including pesticides, preservatives.. etc. and sticking to more whole foods. There are some foods that he needs to avoid during the "detox" phase which include cow dairy, grains, beans, and soy. But after he can add them back in.. but still eating whole and natural foods.

So, I decided to create a blog to document this.. for the fun of it.. and also to help us to remember some of the dishes we create. We are all pretty much doing this diet, it's really quite doable. Jada even loves all of the meals that we are eating. So, we're hoping that this will be a step forward in being healthier as a family and also hopefully will help get Shane on track nutritionally to help get his back better.

If you'd like to see what we are eating.. here's the link to the health blog!
http://jessieshealthblog.blogspot.com/

Why Mormons Build Temples

Our church recently came out with this short video on YouTube. So I thought I'd share it with you all. If any of you reading are not Mormon and curious to know more about temples, I'll do my best to answer your questions.

Chloe bath pics

So I needed some pictures for the girls bathroom... and thought why not just take pictures of the girls. I need to do some of Jada now... maybe some bath robe pics or something. Anyway, I'll give an update soon as I find some time when I don't have to type one handed!

Our Angel is Here!

Chloe Reese Powers
Born February 16th, 2009 4:05 am
7 lbs 4 oz 19.5 inches long

We've been waiting and preparing so long it seems, and now it feels so surreal that she's actually here! I just can't stop staring at her... I can't believe she's really here.

She's perfect and healthy and we were able to come home today. Labor and delivery went fantastic. I had her ala natural... and I aint gonna lie... it was tough! But I feel so blessed. I could not have done it without my amazing husband and dear friend Becky. I can't even believe how amazing they were.

I had stronger but not terrible contractions all day Sunday, and Becky spent the day with me and kept me entertained in-between contractions and timed me when I was having contractions. She took me for a walk, made me snacks and kept me hydrated and kept telling me how great my focus and breathing were though the contractions. Shane kept me entertained with "Chuck" reruns, listening to Jason Mraz and just goofing off and telling funny stories. Sometimes they were so funny I even half laughed through some of my contractions! He rubbed my back during contractions which felt soooooo good and was so comforting. They both really made the whole thing so amazingly enjoyable!

I was originally thinking about hiring a doula... but I'm really glad that I didn't. I think it probably would have been more serious... more down to business dealing with labor contractions with some person I didn't know. It was so nice just hanging out at home and laughing and doing normal things in between contractions. Beck and Shane were both so fun to be with. The distraction was really nice.

My contractions got stronger, and more uncomfortable, and about 2 minutes apart when we started heading for the hospital. It was about 1 am. The whole protocol of getting into the hospital, even when you are preregistered really is crazy when you are in labor. You have to sign papers, answer a whole bunch of annoying questions.... get hooked up to all sorts of crazy contraptions... it really is crazy trying to do all that while having contractions every 2 minutes!

I was about a 7 when I checked in... and they broke my water. Shorty after the contractions got intense and quickly put me into transition. At that point I pretty much just zoned out in order to deal with the pain... but Shane and Beck were so amazing at helping me get through it. The whole labor process was actually very tolerable and even enjoyable up until this point.... and I felt very blessed it had gone so well. And even though transition was by far the worst, I knew it would just be for a very short time, and be a very short part of the whole process, and then the baby would soon be here.

Shane and Becky were so incredible when I got to that point. Becky just kept telling how great I was doing and would watch the monitor and tell me when a contraction was going back down which helped immensely!! It felt good to move my hips and legs to help ease out the tension, so Shane kinda slow danced with me and let me hold onto him and he just rubbed my back while I worked through the transition contractions. It was so comforting to have him there for me and support me like that. There was a midwife there that also stepped in and applied counter pressure to my back which was really helpful.

I've decided that the reason why you have such strong contractions at the end is because it really makes you want to get that baby out in order to alleviate the pain, which gives you the strong instinct to push! I pushed for maybe 10 minutes, and what a sweet wave of joy and relief when she was finally here!!

I feel really great, I would do it naturally again for sure. It really wasn't bad until the very end... and I feel so much better than I did after having Jada. I feel a world of difference in my energy and ability to heal and recover. I made a gift basket to take with me to the hospital full of goodies for Shane and Beck and the nurses... to say THANKS!!! I knew I wouldn't be able to do this alone. Shane, you are an amazing husband and friend, I don't know what I would ever do without you. I love you more and more with each new experience we go through together... which is crazy because I had no idea that I could love you even more. I love our little family!

Beck, you are such an incredibly amazing friend.. I am constantly humbled how much you've been there for me and helped me and I am so glad you could be there for one of the most important events in my life. I love you dearly!