Good Times

Well, it's that time of year again around here...anniversary time!!!  I can't believe we've been married four years, and that next year means it's been FIVE YEARS!!!  That's so crazy!  Our anniversary is February 17th, but don't kid yourself...I don't get spoiled with Valentine's Day and our anniversary.  That was made abundantly clear to me when we decided to get married on the 17th.  If stephen had his way we would have been married in May, but I didn't want to wait that long.  I won that decision, but I lose out on Valentine's Day as a result.  I've learned to accept it. 

I couldn't have asked for a better guy to be married to.  Stephen is absolutely my best friend.  I know I can talk to Stephen about anything.  He knows me better than I think I know myself sometimes.  It's actually kinda creepy.  He always teases me by asking me a question and then answering it EXACTLY how I would....voice and all.  I'm really predictable I guess.  I don't think I could have married a more fun person.  Stephen is hilarious.  The witty comments that come out of his mouth never cease to amaze me.  I can honestly say I don't think a day has gone by in our marriage without me laughing. 

We have a perfect marriage.  We've never ever had an argument.  Can you believe it???  BAH!!  Neither can I.  Juuuuuuust kidding. We've definitely had our "moments", but it always resolves itself and we're better for it.  Sooooooooooo cliche I know, but I honestly don't know what I would do without Stephen in my life.  He is everything to me.  He is the most amazing husband, and a wonderful father.  I can't wait to share the rest of our lives together

this is us the night we got engaged at the YSA halloween dance.

This was one of our engagment photos.  love it. haha

Our wedding day.  I love this picture.  I don't think I've ever felt prettier than I was on my wedding day.

Our 1st Anniversary.  We went to Banff for the weekend.  On our way to the gondola here.

As close as I could find for our 3rd Anniversary.  Totally skipped pictures with the 2nd.  oops

 Stephen with our baby boy.  I love watching him with Balian

My maternity pictures.  This is how Stephen and I are most of the time...laughing

And of course our precious baby boy.  We got some good genes, the two of us.  We make ridiculously cute babies

Happy anniversary hun!!  I love you more than you'll ever know.  Thanks for four amazing years.  I can't wait for many more to come.

White Tuxedo

On Sunday February 6 Balian James Terence McKee was blessed.  Shayla hemmed a good 4 to 5 inches of his pants the day before, but it was worth it.  He has the shortest little legs....no thanks to me. He looked so handsome in his little white tux though.  Stephen was super nervous the morning of.  He said he had a "spiritual readers block".  Haha  so funny.  He gave an awesome blessing though and of course had me bawling by the end.  I don't know what he was so nervous about because he gave a beautiful blessing.  My friend Julie was able to record it with her sweet shorthand skills, and I'm so glad I have it recorded to look back at and reread and that Balian will be able to read it when he's older.  I'm pretty sure we hold the ward record for how many men were in the blessing circle as well :)  I'm not even sure what the final count was but there was at least 10.  The baby blessing the week before us had three!  HAH!!  Awesome. 

 I'm so grateful that I was able to marry a worthy priesthood holder that is able to preside over our household and give me and our children blessings.  Stephen is always so in tune with the Spirit.  So many times he's had the 'thought' or 'feeling' that we need to do something, and Balian's blessing was no exceptiong.  Everything was meant perfectly for our little boy. 

We were pretty exhausted and not on the ball enough to remember to get a picture while we were all still in our Sunday best, so I just took pictures of the little one.  How cute is he in his littl tux though?!  And he was even smiling!  What a cute little munchkin.

He's so flippin cute!!  I can't get over it. 

A Little Late...

I realized the other day I haven't posted pictures of Balian's nursey!!  I had to be creative with decorating the room, but we actually lucked out and had two rooms available for the baby...one a greenish color that would work for a baby boy and one a bright orange color for a little girl.  If you saw the orange room you would be VERY happy we had a boy.  Forever I wanted white furnishings, but I could never find a set or separate pieces that looked good together.  So we landed a steal of a deal at Sears during baby days, and I actually LOVE the set we got.  I did some modge podge of some frames and letters and numbers to hang on the wall, as well his name in block letters.  It was so fun to put it all together and see the final picture.  It's probably my favorite room in the whole house now!!

I  LOVE my glider.  So comfy 

I do have pictures to put in the frames...just haven't got around to it.

Closer up of the bedding.  I love it, and I got such a good deal on it!!!

And just the cutest little man posing for the camera.  SO CUTE!!

CHRISTMAS!!!!

I know it's waaaaaaay late, but I still wanted to write about our Christmas this year.  Christmas day WAS Balian's due date.......I'm sooo glad he decided to come early.  Secretly I think it would have been kind of cool to have a baby on Christmas Day....but I'm sure that Balian would have cursed the day he was born for the rest of his life if that happened.  This year we had Christmas in Edmonton with all of Stephen's family.  Everyone lives in Edmonton except for his sister, and she came up from St. George, so the whole fam damily was here.  Good times.  It was super fun, loud, full of food, fights and fatigue. 

Christmas Eve is always something I look forward to when we spend Christmas with the McKees.  There's a plethora of sandwich fixins, anything and everything you want for a sandwich, with all the accompanying side dishes.   Soooooooo good.  I ate waaaaay too much.  And I didn't even have the excuse of being pregnant anymore.  Dangit.  We attempted a nativity renactment this year.  It was probably the most condensed nativity I've ever witnessed, but so cute.

Christmas Eve night Balian and I went to bed around 11....only to be awakened by Stephen around 1 A.M.  Thanks hun.  haha  He couldn't sleep, so we decided just to open our presents then.  Our Christmas was pretyy low key this year due to our delightful child being born.  I got Stephen a chef's jacket to match the one he got me for my birthday and a digital picture frame for his desk at work and a panini grill.  We very much enjoy paninis.  Mmmmmm  Stephen got me some new lulu lemon gear...love it!! and the Hunger Games series.....also love that!!!  And Balian got a giant stuffed monkey.  so cute.  

We went over to McKees after that to see what everyone else got and open our gifts from his parents.  We got a butt load of kitchen gear which was soooo nice, and Balian got a sweet bumbo chair and a cute little sled.  It will be so fun to use with him next year.  We hung out and had breakfast, but I was totally wasted, so we went home to sleep and enjoy the rest of Christmas Day with our new little family.  We had an awesome Christmas.  I can't wait to start having our own little family Christmas and start our own traditions.  We've already got a few good ones in mind.  I love Christmas and the spirit that it brings into our lives.  Everyone just seems happier during this time of year, and I like that.  It's always sad when it's over, but now I can't wait until next year!!!  Here's a few pictures.  I didn't take many.  I took more video this year.  

Stockings hung by the fireplace

Ya....I had Balian five days after this picture

 The spread.  Mmmmm

 Cute cousins

 Cutest Christmas babe ever!!

 

HE'S HERE!!!

Warning:  Super long post

Well, he just couldn't wait until Christmas Day.  On December 7, 2010 at 2:32 pm our baby boy, Balian James Terence McKee decided to grace us with his presence.  Here's how it went down.  At 4am I was startled awake but a certain trickling sensation.  I pondered for a moment....is it really possible for a grown woman to pee her pants???  I wanted to believe it was....because I secretly was NOT ready for this baby to come.    So I cleaned up and went back to bed, only to feel a gushing trickle 20 minutes later.  It was on.  I thought.  Just to be sure I consulted my trusty friend....google.  Sure enough I was convinced my water had in fact broke and we were going to have a little baby boy in a very short while. 

So I decided it was time to tell Stephen.  I walked into the bedroom and quietly and calmly whispered, Stephen my water broke.  For those of you that know Stephen you can probably picture his reaction.  Hilarious.  He SPRUNG out of bed.  It was game time.  He quickly set about getting the baby's bag and my bag ready while I showered and got a little cleaned up.  He somehow managed to sneak in a load of laundry.  Hilarious. 

So then we were off to the hospital.  We got there in about 2 minutes...it's right down the street.  I got all checked in and everything.  I was only having contractions about every 8-10 minutes and they weren't intense at all...I hardly noticed them.  I was so grateful my doctor was on call that day.  I love my doctor.  He's hilarious and so nice and gentle.  So he checked me and I was only like 1 centimeter.  BOO!!  He gave me Cervadil (sp) to soften my cervix.  Well that was a big mistake.  But who am I kidding?  I had a bit of an odd pregnancy, so why not have a bit of a weird labor right?  Well about two minutes after it was in I puked.  And I continued to puke about every half hour after that.  Finally we decided to take it out.  Thank goodness.  The puking stopped.  Unfortunately I was still only 1 centimeter.  Stupid useless cervadil.  

Well at this point I've been at the hospital for about six hours.  So they decided to move me into my own room.  At this point I'm getting contractions about every 2-3 minutes now, and they're starting to hurt...really hurt.    I had the choice to either get some morphine or an epidural.  I had no opposition to getting the epidural...but if any of you know ME then you know my reaction to needles....especially large needles going into my spine.  But I can honestly say that the pain was that bad.  Just ask Stephen and his two middle fingers that had the life squeezed right out of them.  So I requested the epidural. 

My anesthesiologist was awesome.  I had really great doctors and nurses throughout the whole day.  The epidural went fine...a little pain but NOTHING like what I was picturing, which was a huge relief.  Unfortunately there was no huge relief in my pain level.  Like zero, nadda, zilch.  In fact...it got worse.  Much worse.  This went on for about an hour.  They had me roll this way and that then back again, trying to get the medicine to numb me but to no avail.  So they had the doc come back in and give me some more of the good stuff.  It was no good.  The contractions continued, the pain continued.  At this point everyone was a little baffled.  I'm only 5 foot 1.  I'm small.  I'd had enough medication for someone was was almost 6 feet by this point.  He decided to try giving me a little bit more to see if that worked...if not we'd go a different route.  So i suffered through contractions every 2-3 minutes for another half hour and no relief.  I could have gotten up and walked around.  There was no effect on me. 

So my options were to take the epidural out and try to reposition it or get a spinal and have a C-Section.  I also was still only 2 centimeteres dilated.  Are you kidding me!!!  All that pain for nothing!!  I was getting a little pissed at this point.  I almost swore....almost.  Stephen was impressed.  haha  After talking with both of my doctors and Stephen we came to the conclusion that even if I did go through another 6 or 8 hours of labor there was a very high chance I would need a c-section anyway.   We had a few scares up to this point in labor with the baby.  Every time I had a really intense contraction his heart rate dropped to like 60.  The first time this happened scared the crap out of me.  All of a sudden there's like 8 nurses in the room rolling me and flipping me and turning me and trying to move the baby to get the heart rate back up.  And where is Stephen???  I DON'T KNOW!!!  I'm freaking out and stephen is nowhere to be found.  This happened three or four times, and somehow everytime it happened Stephen was out of the room.  Ridiculous!!  Anyway...so they didn't want to risk something more serious happening to the baby while I was in labor, so we all decided it would be best to do a c-section. 

So begins my hyperventilating.  This was NOT my plan.  I was scared to death of a c-section.  I just began bawling, and the poor nurse didn't know what to do.  She thought I was in pain or something.  NO.  I was just freaking out.  Luckily I have a husband who knows me to a T.  He knew I was just scared and knew exactly what to say to calm me down.  I'm so glad he was there with me.  So I got rolled down to the operating room and prepped.  The spinal really wasn't all that bad.  I got about a dozen different pokes all in the same area until I was right paralyzed.  It's the weirdest feeling ever.  It's like you know when your foot falls asleep and it's soooo heavy, and you poke it and you know something is touching you but you can't really feel it.....that's what it felt like.  That's the best I can describe it. 

So they let Stephen come in and the docs got down to business cutting and sawing away....or doing whatever they do.  And I didn't feel a thing.  Finally.  Sweet sweet relief.  I was violently shaking from the medication, but that was about it.  So about 10 minutes or so later Balian came out!!  He didn't cry at first.  My doctor's prediction was right, and the cord was wrapped around his neck.  That's why his heart rate kept dropping with my contractions.  His little head was also wedged in my pelvis....which i totally KNEW!!  It was so uncomfortable the last two weeks of my pregnancy.  I knew he was wedged down there.  So yet another good reason why we had the c-section.  They said I probably wouldn't have been able to deliver him anyway.  So he wasn't breathing when he first came out, but they got to work and very quickly we heard that little squawk of his.   Balian's first order of business of course was to pee all over all the nurses.....twice.  What a little brat.  haha 

Stephen was sooooooo good throughout the whole thing.  He had no desire to peek over the blue sheet or to cut the cord or anything.  His whole focus was on me, keeping me calm.  He just looked at me and had me look at him the whole time.  It was really sweet.  As soon as we heard Balian for the first time we both kinda lost it.  I totally started bawling.  I don't think you can explain the amount of kind of emotion you feel in that moment.  It's something I'll never forget though.  I've seen stephen cry very very few times in our marriage.  I can count them on one hand.  But this was definitely one of those times.  It was so sweet to see the love he immediately had for our little boy.  So they cleaned him up and wrapped him up and handed him to Stephen.  He brought him over to me to see and we just sat there all together as a family.  It was such an awesome moment. 

So after that everything went about as smoothly as it could. I got all sewn back together and we went back to our room. My parents were there and my uncle, who took some pretty cute pictures of our little guy. Unfortunately Stephen had to run to school to do a quick presentation. Turn out he got sick on the way with the stomach flu and ended up puking the night away at our house. Luckily my mom was there to spend the next two nights with me in the hospital and help me out. Stephen came back for the third night finally feeling half alive. Poor guy. And now we're all at home, one happy family at last.


First family photo.  Nice and swollen from my IV.   Nasty....but my cute boys make up for it.

There are few things I love more than watching Stephen with Balian

AHHHH!  Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?!  I love him so much.  He is such a good baby.  He doesn't cry...like ever.  I know, I know, enjoy it while it lasts.  But seriously, there were babies that would cry for like minutes at a time all around us in the hospital and all we get out of this little guy is a squawk.  He's the best.  So easy to please and full of smiles and love for his mom and dad.  We're so grateful for Balian in our lives.  It still kinda hasn't set in for either of us that we're parents yet, but I'm sure it will, and we'll love every minute of it. 

Oh Naomi.....

I have like a million things to blog about, but we'll start here.  Our dear, dear Naomi...Stephen's first love.  She's passed and we've now moved on to bigger and better things. 

Stpehen with Noami before we cashed her in. 

I'm sure a guy's first car means a lot more to him than to a girl.  Stephen loved this little Honda, and she sure was good to him and to us.  She landed him me!!!  He was always quick to remind me of that when I would complain regularly about the two doors.   It was very weird saying goodbye to Naomi.  We have had a lot of good memories with her.  But alas...with baby McKee on the way, two doors was just not going to happen, and Honda offered us a deal we couldn't pass up.  So without further delay....meet Holly the Honda




This isn't our exact car, because we have yet to take a picture with it, but this is a pretty good replica of Holly, our new shiny black 2010 Honda Civic with 4 DOORS!!!  We love her to bits already.  She's leaps and bounds ahead of Naomi.  Firstly...she has four doors.   Secondly...she has cruise!!!  Who knew the drive to sourthern Alberta would be that much better with cruise control????  Heaven.  She's got a bunch of new features and gadgets and gizmos that we just love about her too, but I won't bore you all with the details.  Just know that this picture depicts how we feel about our dear Holly.  But we'll always have a place for Naomi in our hearts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

On November 15 I turned the big 2-4.  I haven't felt old until this point.  I think it's probably because I'm pregant....or maybe it's because next year is 25!!  not cool.  I did have a wonderful birthday though.   We take our birthdays very seriously around here.  It's always referred to as birthday week, in which the person whose birthday isn't being celebrated is basically a slave to the birthday person.  It's great....when it's your birthday.  My request during my birthday week was that stephen gets zero gaming...unless I'm working.  This has been tough since the new Call of Duty game out this past week, but he's held to his promise...mostly... and hasn't played when I'm not working.  It's been just divine.  

Stephen had a ton of vacation days left that he needed to use before the end of the year so he took a bunch of time off for my birthday.  Lucky him.  I had one day off.  haha  Totally not fair, but it was a good day.  We woke up bright and early and headed to the only non-fast food breakfast joint we know.  Denny's!!  I can't wait until the iHop is done.  It actually was pretty good.  I always get the french toast.   Mmmmm....I could go for some right now...with strawberries and whipped cream.   So delicious.  Anyways....then we came back and watched some tv and just hung out until we had to primp and make ourselves beautiful for my maternity shoot with my cousin.  I can't wait to see them!!  Hopefully I don't look like a giant blimp in them.  Highly unlikely though.  Then we came home and Stephen cooked me up a delicious meal of lasagna, twice baked potatoes and red velvet cupcakes for dessert.  It was soooo good.  I love lasagna, but it's such an ordeal to make it so I only get it once a year.  So i savor every bite.  We had stephen's family over and my sister and her family over to share in the cupcake goodness.  It was there where I was showered with lavish gifts of diapers, wipes and new slippers!!  haha  I loved it.  I think we pretty much have everything for baby now. 

Stephen spoiled me....as usual.  Probably our last 'big' gifts for each other this year since little mckee is coming along.  He got me a chef's coat with my name and our wedding anniversary stitched on it.  i LOVE it.  Such a thoughtful hubby.  And he got me a KitchenAid Mixer!!!  WOOHOO!  I have wanted one forever, and I love it.  And he got me a new purse....a very nice purse....which I am in love with.  So nice. 

Here I am with my new baby, bursting at the seams....literally...of my chef's jacket.

You can see the stitching in this one

My hottie cookin for me 

Classic

Haha  so cute!!  Nadia loved little Malin.  I hope I have a girl next.  She needs a little girl cousin so bad.  There was a lot of new faces.  Malin didn't quite know what to think of it.

Oh good heavens I'm large haha!!

So that was my birthday.  I loved it...except for the fact that now I have to say I'm 24.  I'll get over it though.  In other news we finally finished baby's room and I FINALLY finished his blasted blankie, so once I take some pictures I'll post about that.  Only one more month to go!!!  I can't believe it!!