Moving On.

Today is a rough day. 

It will be the last time I’m going to walk through our first home. It began as just Mark and me, and ended with the four of us. The home we brought our boys home from the hospital to; the home where we watched countless sunsets over the water and took hundreds of pictures of the beautiful longhorn from our backyard.

Many times throughout this process I have asked myself, are we doing the right thing? Did we jump into this too quickly? Maybe. Most decisions in my life I make quickly without dwelling on it long and they all seem to pan out the way God planned them to. I’ll let God take care of this one too.

I know this transition wouldn't be as hard if we were moving into our new home instead of a temporary, cramped 2 bedroom apartment; which by the way has already been a test of my patience. I do think that is a large part as to why I am so emotional. Anyone want two well-trained husky mixes for the next 7 months? (seriously).

I feel like going on a rant about things I’m going to miss; in no particular order.

The sunsets

The longhorns

The sound of the geese splashing in the pond, the pond in general, the stone pathway, 

the Texas Star

The stripes we painted in Copelan’s room (you can barely see)

(which took way too long but turned out awesome)

My bay window, the huge windows in the living room looking into our backyard, privacy, 3-car garage, the tree Mark loved but does know the name of, the awesome ceilings in the entryway...

All of Copelan’s firsts: 

First sink bath

 First Steps

First birthday

 First Snow

Mark's First Thanksgiving Turkey

(so handsome <3)

I know memories will be created in our new home, I just wish it were sooner than later. All of the physical things of the house can be recreated, but the memories cannot. So very thankful for pictures I can look back on and reminisce.

Remember I mentioned once about numbers sounding nice? Well, our new address sounds much better than the old and I take that as a good omen; bye-bye 14953 and hello 14720 (in 7 months). It’s ridiculous the amount of sadness I have when we will just be a short walk down the road. We will have black cows instead of longhorn to look at in our new backyard and a pond across the street we can fish in, instead of the pond behind the house (seriously I need to stop whining because this is a fair trade). It’s time to focus on the new fun memories to come.

Goodbye 14953, Mark and I were always so proud to call you home.

Until summer 2014, #apartmentlife #sleepisfortheweak #testofpatience #help #missmybackyard #sorryneighbors #loudbabies (#hashtagsarefunbecausepeoplehatethem)

Been a Little Busy...

Sweet baby Crew has come into this world at a chaotic time, thankfully he won't remember a minute of it.

See, no problem sleeping through the chaos that ensues.  

I'll get everyone updated.

Let's go back to September. Mark was offered a job in San Antonio. After juggling what our heads told us to do and what our hearts told us to do we decided we were going to move. This would take place 10 days after Crew was born. I went to deliver with tons weighing on my mind, we have to sell the house, where are we going to live, we have to pack up the house with a newborn and a toddler, o m gee. 

We had painted the nicks in the wall where Copelan had rammed his toys and filled nail holes where family photos and decor once hung. We had begun packing boxes and had a trailer here to load. Shoot, I was painting baseboards and doing yard work 2 days postpartum in preps to get our house on the market. We were ready to go. 

A few days after we were home from the hospital Mark received a surprising offer from his current company we could not pass up, and once again our emotions (mostly mine) were an utter mess. I had just okay-ed myself with moving, now we are staying, holy headache. Time to unpack. 

Well, our house sure looked nice, ha. Guess now we get to stay here to enjoy it. 

Or dooo weee?

Word got around to a neighbor/realtor/friend of ours that we were moving to San Antonio and turns out she found a buyer for our house without us even putting it on the market. So once again, we had a decision to make. A few things factored into our decision. 

1. The hardest part of selling a house was done, we won't even have to go through the stress of showing our house and praying it sells. 

2. The interest rates are still low for the time being.

3. We really needed a bigger house.

So obviously, the decision was made that we are moving, but not far, it's borderline ridiculous actually. 

We are moving down the street, the exact same street, 0.18 miles away to be exact. 

We are building a new house. Yay!

In reality we needed a house with a better floor plan. So buh-bye 3/2 and hello 4/3 with a game room :) I'll post another update before we are gone so I can be sappy and reminiscing over the time we have spent at our first home, but this is all for now, gotta go before the tears start. 

YOLO. 

The Arrival

Here he is. Our widdle ewaphant. If you don't like baby talk, sorry. You have to speak baby when talking about something this precious.

Crew is here.

Let me tell you a bit about his arrival.

Wednesday night we went to check into the hospital. I was so excited and maybe taking my time in leaving. I wanted to capture pictures and savor my last moments at home. We ended up arriving 5 minutes late (10:05pm) and the doors were locked at 10pm. Super. We pulled our car to the other side of the hospital and walked a bit, and those doors were locked as well. Mark asked if I wanted to go back and move the car again; nope, let's just keep walking. (This was as dumb as my walking to Marshall's in the mall idea.) We trampled through the wet grass into some open doors and then had to walk another half a mile to Labor and Delivery. The nice woman at check-in asked if I wanted a wheel chair so Mark could wheel me the rest of the way, I laughed and said no thank you, (I was already mid-workout, why stop now) as we finally made our was to L&D. 

15 minutes late. Ugh, I absolutely hate being late even though there are no repercussions at the hospital. Can you imagine?... "Sorry ma'am you're late so you are going to have to hold your son in a few more days, come back Friday." Not only were we late but they had all of my information under Kristen Kelsey. Ah! What?! Reason being, I had lost my new driver's license since changing my name 4 years ago and had been using my old one which still isn't expired. It says Kristen Lynne Kelsey, that I live in Buda and has a fantastic picture (which is one reason why I haven't cared to get a new one). Well, that old license is how they recorded all of my information and it came to bite me in the butt. My son is now Crew Kelsey (sorry kiddo). His wrist bands and name tag all said it. The door to my room also said Kelsey so my doctor was highly confused. Why this didn't happen with Copelan I don't know. Luckily I was able to write the correct name on the birth certificate. 

Okay, I've now gotten over that. Time to settle into my lumpy hospital bed for the worst night of sleep imaginable. 

Since Mark and I walked a mile to get into the hospital I was now 4cm dilated, not 2cm which I was the day before. They were able to start Pitocin just after midnight. I tried to sleep, but between contractions and this wacky sleeping med they put in my IV all I could do was toss, turn and dream of dancing furniture. 

They administered my epidural around 4am. It hurt a little, it's more uncomfortable if anything, but it's definitely not like you see on TV with a huge needle and screaming. So ladies without babies yet, there is hope. Take the meds. As I progressed so did the pain. My doctor came in around 8am and I was mis-er-able. I told her something was wrong with my epidural because I can feel everything. I signed up for the, "I don't feel a thing" labor... can we do something about that? She got the anesthesiologist in to re-administer some meds, mission accomplished.  Feel-no-pain labor back on track. Unfortunately, that did not last. It was back. I felt every contraction from 8:45 on. How were my legs numb but not my abdomen!? 

Well, I pushed through the pain, no tears shed, just ugly facial expressions and a bruised husband's hand. Around 9:40am it was time to push. My doctor was called and was soon there. Mark said, hopefully you can get him out by 10. I said, no, no, no. He will be here in 10 minutes not 20. Two pushes later, at 9:51am Crew was here!

10/3/2013 

8.1lbs, 20 inches long. Healthy as can be! So blessed.

 Our first family picture

This man is seriously the best dad, husband and friend. 

I love how he is with our boys.

 Little angel face.

Mark took this of Crew and me the morning after he was born. 

I couldn't love it anymore. 

Final, Baby on the Way, Update

My bags are packed! 

The date is set. I head to the hospital the afternoon of October 2nd and Crew should be here on October 3rd; if he chooses to wait that long. I know he will wait if he is anything like his brother who was induced 2 days past his due date. This will make Crew 6 days early, which I am so excited about. Hopefully he will not be a 10lb baby as I have feared. 

I am also excited about his birth-date. I'm weird about numbers, I just want his birthday to be somewhat easy to remember, 10-3-13. Perfect. I am so super excited! 

We spent our last weekend as a family hanging around the house and making our final preparations. I have given Copelan a thousand hugs and told him I love him a billion times. He will love his brother from first sight I just know it. Until he realizes he is here to stay and cries a lot I think things will go just dandy. 

Mark took this pic and I asked how it came out, 

he replied that Copelan looked alert, lol. Truth.

Always stealing my water

And he always wants to touch the darn cactus.

 Lookin' like a man baby, tear.

I went to get a mani/pedi this weekend too. It couldn't have been better. You never know how it's going to go. Are you going to get a lady who talks the whole time in a language you don't understand?.. Is she going to cut my cuticle too deep or is my massage chair not going to work? Well, my lady was quite, my cuticles are great and my massage chair did it's job. 

Belly and chubby toes below. Those are my normal chub toes, not swollen ha.

Bring on the babykins! 

Baby Sprinkle

Last weekend while in Austin with my family, they threw me a Sprinkle for Crew. It was not a shower, those are bigger and more extravagant. This was small, few friends, few family, not so many decorations. We needed and wanted diapers, the more the better, and that is primarily what we got. It was a wonderful time seeing everyone and Mark and Copelan were even able to attend. 

My mom and me

 Mark of course

 Snacking on the bar

 Copelan and Farrah, Amy's baby girl. He LOVED her and just wanted to hug her

 Copelan wanted to hold Farrah's hand

Me and my high school bff's (minus one) and our babies and babies to be

So blessed.

Life: Photography: Pregnant Stuff

To say I've been busy is an understatement. Maybe I'll try to write less and post more photos so I can get everything up to date quicker. Let's get real, I'm wordy, I need to write. 

Last week we all went to Austin, meaning Mark, Copelan me and Crew belly. Usually it's just me and Cope because Mark works. I had to get my hair done before baby comes and luckily I had time to squeeze in an appointment with Rebecka at Bella Vita Salon in Buda, thus resulting in the stellar pic below. Yes, I'm aware that once something is on the internet it cannot be erased, yet I posted it anyway. How's that for self confidence?!

After getting all prettified I had things to take care of. I started with photos for Southern Crown Boutique (www.southerncrownboutique.com) of their new, super cute fall inventory. 

The Katie models shown below.

                  
I got to be in a little photo shoot of my own later that weekend. My sweet and talented sister Katie (the one in the orange) took pic of our little fam. We simply went in my parent's backyard against the stone wall, nothing too crazy. I was currently 37/38 weeks in the photos. I wish we could have gotten some of the "kid kissing mommy's belly pics", but the kids in those pics have to be on Benadryl or something. Copelan will not sit still, ever, so there weren't any Pinterest worthy pictures like that taken. 

Oh whoops, had to sneak this in there. I was testing out the lighting on Mark. Hehe

How did I get so lucky!?!

Me and the handsome Mr. Hafner

Proppin' up a wall

This is a mildy awkward pose. Oh, hey wall, wink*

Copelan is such a cheeser sometimes; he is also mildly kicking me in the Crew.

A few black and whites of my current only child.

I'm not done with my weekend update so I'll post another tomorrow.