and baby makes 4!

AAAAND WERE BACK!

Sort of.

When trying to unregister my domain names this week and getting extremely frustrated with Google Apps, they don't make it very easy to login and cancel auto renewals do they, I decided to take a look back at this sweet little blog I used to be so fond of. A lot has changed since my last post in February 2014, and I thought i'd post some updates as to what's been going on with us.

We welcomed our second sweet baby girl Finley Mae Norris on June 21st, 2014, and it's been incredible ever since. She arrived on a Saturday night after a full day of hustle and bustle, a hike, the farmers market, a visit to the chiropractor, and a beautiful little girls birthday party, at which I was contracting from the minute we got there. We called the midwives on the way home to let them know I'd been contracting for about 2 hours and they were increasing and getting closer. We were told to check back around 9pm, as they were with another mother who was laboring much longer than I had been. This was around 7pm, and we headed home to prep and wait out contractions, things moved pretty quickly. We called around 8:45 to let the midwives know they should probably head over soon, that my contractions were less than 4 minutes apart and increasing in length and intensity, all good things! They headed over immediately and within 45 minutes we had a midwife and birth assistant at home with us prepping for a baby to arrive. We called over our neighbor to come watch a movie and snuggle with Stella, as things were too intense and she was way too excited to go to bed, she wanted to meet her baby sister that night!! We were still waiting on a second midwives arrival when I started to feel intense pressure to push, and with my waters still intact, I moved to my safe spot, the same safe spot I loved when in labor with Stella, the toilet, haha. It was just sooo comfortable to sit and relax everything and not worry about what was happening, just focus on getting through the back to back contractions, focus on my breathing, Brent's hands on my back, Stella's excited smiling face peeking at me from across the hall, she also came over and gave me a big hug and kiss at this point, and told me how much she loved me and how excited she was, I love her so much for this. I had been feeling the need to push for some time, and the second midwife finally arrived a bit after 10pm, so they set up the birth stool for me to move too when I was ready. I made my way back down into our living room, sat down, and began to push. I remember it being maybe 5 minutes, but Brent says it was longer, not much, but it wasn't only 5 minutes haha. My bulging bag of waters started to slide out with Finley's head, and broke as soon as she slid out of me, pink, pissed, and so so beautiful! She arrived just after 11pm, and was immediately placed on my belly, started nursing within minutes, and was just happy as can be. Stella came out to hold her for a minute, and then daddy finally scooped her off to sleep. The midwives stayed with my until around 3am, when they packed up and headed back to the other mother in labor. It was such an incredible experience giving birth at home, I wouldn't have traded it for anything, and wish I could do it just one more time. Finley has added so much love, light, laughter, and so much more to our family, we couldn't imagine life without her.

More to come soon :) 

So, We're Pregnant!

AND IT's a GIRL!!!


We are so excited to be having another little girl! Stella is stoked about being a big sister, and once she realizes she'll have a baby sister to boss around i'm sure that'll be even cooler. I'm right about the 23 week mark, this weekend, and so far so good! We figured out the reason I had been miscarrying over the last two years, I have Hypothyroidism, brought on by pregnancy. So sometime after Stella's birth, my hormones just couldn't self regulate, and my thyroid just gave up and went on the fritz. 3 weeks into taking medication last fall, we got pregnant, found out a few weeks later, and have been keeping close watch ever since. I'm not a huge fan of all the ultrasounds and unknown repercussions of them at this point, but when your high risk for early miscarriage, I think they are worth it. We found out a few weeks ago that it was a girl, and little #2 looks super awesome and healthy! She was wiggling and turning and punching the wand out of her way, she's a mover for sure! I feel her all the time, mostly after eating, which I do constantly, but she always gives a few kicks or adjusts after, and I love the feeling. Brent felt her move around 19 weeks, and the little thinks its creepy so she doesn't feel much. We are so thankful for this second little girl and for her health and growth, she's doing awesome. I'm feeling much better in the second trimester thankfully, it was a long few weeks of exhaustion for me.

So with that huge news, i'll leave you to enjoy some of our latest winter pics, were now enjoying warmer temps, I am super tempted to plant my whole garden of cold crop, and were loving being outside more often. Spring is here!!

yep, spring is here, break out the sun dress and floppy hat!

We went up to a friends cabin in Garden Valley, and there was SO MUCH SNOW!! 

So of course, we hadn't packed actual snow clothes, because it was warming up, so fleece pants and coats came in handy all weekend. 

and Abby got to go too!! 

Warming up and a snack after playing in the snow

The dads built a snow cave, super cool for littles! 

She liked it, for a little bit. 

Coffee dates happen often now, and these ones, they come with a huge pile of whipped cream on top! 

'Arrrrggghhhh matey' 

and of course a shoutout to the 12th man, Woo Seahawks!! 

Real Foodies Swap = Sheer Awesomeness!

Over the summer I joined a fantastic group of women here in the Treasure Valley for my first ever real foodies food swap, and oh my goodness, was it the best decision ever! This morning we had our monthly meet up, and I swear, this thing just gets bigger and better each month! Our swap organizer posted an awesome amount of photos from the swap today, and I have her permission to link up to her blog post here, I'm so excited to show you all the goodies we had at this event!! And all of it homemade by all who participated! I had offerings of Rocky Road fudge, Vanilla salted caramel sauce, and a variety of whole spices, turmeric, cumin, celery root, and mustard seeds. I truly feel like next month I need to step up my game again! These women are outdoing themselves with their offerings! Here is a picture of the goodies I brought home, it's just too good not to share!

The goodies above are as follows, jalapeno pickled green beans, honey, chai concentrate mix, pumpkin puree, letterpress coasters, lotion bars, chapstick, pomegranate jelly, elderberry syrup, nutella, chocolate mint extract, tangerine orange sauce, toffee bark, and soap! Not pictured is the amazing loaf of sourdough bread that we were already munching on. I seriously feel so blessed to be apart of such an awesomely talented group!! We have some great swaps!!

Head on over and check out my friend Erika's blog post that explains a bit more what our swaps are all about.

And if you do something similar i'd love to hear about it! or if you want to learn more about how to start a real foodie swap in your area, i'd also love to hear that as well!

Happy swapping!

Jessica 

Photo Book

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The Wedding

I am overjoyed to share that my little sister is now married!! Congrats Pam and Kyle!! I'm so excited for them to start the amazing journey that marriage is, and seriously, my new BIL is pretty fantastic. Stella already adores him, she especially loves that he has boats at his house all the time and sometimes he lets her go on them, he's pretty cool. I wanted to share some photos of the day from their photographer, Bill at Select Photography. He's pretty amazing, and captured some great moments that day. I was blessed to be Matron of Honour, cause really, what choice did Pammy have. ;) It was a lot of fun helping her plan, and had it's share of stress involved, but thankfully she hired a wedding planner, and things couldn't have gone more perfect... except when the Bull got out of the fence and was up at the patio... yea that was fun. Pammy looked incredible, and her bridal party wasn't too shabby either, we all clean up pretty nice for fancy occasions. Enjoy some pics of their big day below, 

Congratulations Pam and Kyle!!!