Announcing...

Adora Rosalie Jordan

November 18, 2010

8:28 a.m.

6 pounds, 13 ounces

20 1/2 inches long

I know this post is really late but I have had my hands full! LITERALLY! I can't put this little girl down. She is so tiny and so fun to hold. She likes to cuddle so as soon and she is in my arms she wiggles closer to me and falls asleep. She is a great baby and hardly ever cries. She is very quiet and content. Her brother absolutely LOVES her!

I don't have a very exciting birth story but people have asked...all I can say is that scheduled c-sections are intense! I was so nervous leading up to the actual procedure that I didn't sleep for TWO DAYS! By the time we were at the hospital I couldn't stay awake any more. So, even though I only had a spinal tap as far as drugs go I slept through most of the surgery. Guy kept waking me up to keep me posted on what was going on and to hold her once she was out. If I had a choice I would like to go into labor naturally even though I know I will be having a c-section.

Also, since many people have wondered...She will be called Rosalie. It is a tradition on my mom's side of the family to name the first daughter "Adora". Most of us have always gone by a nickname, for example: I am "Adora Margaret". My mom is "Adora Ann" but she goes by "Do" (pronounced doe). My grandmother was "Adora Lou" and was called "Lulu". Miss Rosalie is the 7th Adora. While I have mixed emotions about this tradition (why don't we just give people the name that they will be called???), we decided that we would carry it on for now because it was very important to my mom. If it continues to bug me we will probably change it in a year.

Hopefully I will post more as I get more comfortable with being a mother of two. It is fabulous to have another person in this world to love. She is everything I could have asked for and more. How did I get so lucky???

Blessed!

Today I am feeling very blessed! For 9 months I have had the joy, privilege and blessing of carrying another human being with me every where I go. She has been my constant companion and reminded me daily how lucky I am. I have tried not to complain or wish her out (which didn't always happen). It is a strange feeling to know that she will be outside of me tomorrow. It is a bittersweet feeling. I can't wait to meet her! I remember feeling this with Vaughn but not as strong. I love having her inside because it feels like I can protect her.
As I have mentioned before, I am sad to be changing my relationship with Vaughn. He and I are so close and I am not ready for that to change. I don't want to share him and I know that he will have to make a big adjustment to sharing me! Today he has been talking a lot about his baby sister. I know he will make a great big brother and, in the long run (probably even the short run), he will benefit from having a sibling.
Sorry there are no pictures today...Just me being overly emotional and wondering if my house will ever be this quiet again?

Peacocks, Pumpkins & Pregnancy

I think it should be called "P"-tober instead of October in our house! Things have been very busy and exciting around here!!

Peacocks:

I am not sure I have seen anything cuter in this world than Vaughn in his peacock costume. He enjoys wearing it almost as much as I enjoy watching him wear it!! I have a friend who has twin boy's who wore this costume a while back and when Vaughn got to the right age/size I was very eager to borrow it for our own use. I don't know how she handled seeing 2 of these peacocks next to one another because I could barely hold it together with just one. We look forward to going to our first "trunk-or-treat" this weekend with a bunch of Vaughn's cousins!

Pumpkins:

We carved pumpkins early this year which was good and bad. The bonus was that Guy got to do it with us. He has been gone a lot since then so we wouldn't have had time to do it later in the season and still in time for Halloween. The drawback is that they are completely dead now. They have shriveled to an unrecognizable state and are black from mold on the inside.

We let Vaughn paint his pumpkin while we carved which turned out to be a great idea. His is still intact and looking better than his parent's. I wish I had a picture of his final product but rest assured it looks just like you would expect a 2-year-old's painted pumpkin to look.

Can you guess which pumpkin is mine and which is Guy's?

Pregnancy:

Besides being a little more sore than I remember being with Vaughn, this pregnancy is going so well! The baby is really low (I know I should have a picture but that would require self-photography which I am too lazy for at the moment). She is also breach. The lowness and breach position really contribute to me feeling great. I have very little heartburn and I still feel like I can breath pretty well. By this point with Vaughn I was miserable with heartburn and I just wanted him out! I feel like she could cook for a while longer and I would still feel fine!

I have a lot of fears about having another child and this makes me so nervous. Mostly I feel like I am going to traumatize Vaughn. How am I going to give him the attention he needs while taking care of an infant? Will I favor him or her? Will Vaughn and I still be best friends like we are now? But whether I am ready or not she is coming. Assuming everything goes as planned, we will have a c-section on November 18th and finally meet our newest bundle of joy! Until then we are having a very extravagant Halloween because it will be our last holiday as a family of 3.

Many of you have sent me messages wondering if we have a name picked yet. I wish I could say yes because I am quite concerned about her being nameless but unfortunately she is still just "baby girl." Sometimes I will call her Mallory because it feels weird not having a name but I am not sure if that name suits her (or us).

Pistol Pete:

Vaughn has been around for 3 football seasons but this was the first year that he was really aware of everything going on around him. It was fun to watch him take in all the action. From a distance, he was pretty intrigued by Pistol Pete but when my dad took him to actually meet him this (see below) was the closest he would come. The picture doesn't illustrate the 30 feet separating them!

Parties:

Vaughn has really enjoyed his Kindermusik class this fall! Every Wednesday he wakes up and is sure to remind me that we have to go to music class. This week he got to wear his costume to class and enjoy a little Halloween party! He absolutely loved it! His teacher, Miss Carrie, is fabulous. I think this will be one of things we will miss most about Green River!

Happy September!

It has been so long since I have blogged! We have been pretty busy and Guy has been gone A LOT but mostly I just lost my motivation sometime during the summer. The past few weeks have been jam packed with adventure and big news!

When Guy had been gone for a month and a half I convinced him to take a day long drive to come see us even though he would have to turn around in 24 hours and go back. I didn't expect that he would talk me into going back with him! Right now there is a big boom in North Dakota so it is impossible to get a hotel room. Luckily our friends Aspen and Adam let us stay with them. It was so nice of them to put us up the entire time we were there (which turned out to be a week and a half instead of 4 days). Vance and Vaughn turned out to be very good friends!

After we got home from ND my parents came to visit. My mom and I have been very excited to shop for this new baby but have been holding out until we knew the sex. Since my doctor in Evanston could never tell what we were having we have just had to wait. However, patience is not my strongest characteristic. I finally caved and called a business here called "Sneak-a-Peek Fetal Imaging." I made an appointment and we got to go see our baby! Can you guess what we are having?

I am entirely clueless on what to do with a girl but excited none the less! It should be an interesting learning curve for our whole family. She was very cooperative when it came to showing us her sex but we only got a few good shots of her face! Of course, I think she is beautiful. It looks like she will have a lot of hair and I already see a resemblance to Vaughn.

Along with the baby girl news we also had another big surprise. As I mentioned earlier, Guy has been doing a lot of work away from home. I was getting pretty lonely and a little crazy (we can blame this on pregnancy hormones, right?) and begged to him to ask his boss about any opportunities that might be available to him and keep him home more. I was hoping for something around here or closer to my family but was taken completely off guard when he offered Guy a job in Williston, ND. The job would be a promotion for him and mean he would be home a lot more. Even though I wasn't crazy about moving so far away we decided that it was best for our family. We don't have hardly any of the details smoothed out yet but Guy accepted the job and we will be moving in early 2011! Here is a map in case you were wondering where in the heck Willistion is:Williston is located 20 miles from the Montana boarder and about 60 miles from the Canadian border. Now that you know where it is you know about as much as I do about the town! Feel free to plan a trip to come see us any time.

I can't promise that I will be any better about blogging but hopefully I can at least stay somewhat updated on our plans for moving as they become more concrete!

Where Has the Time Gone?

What have we been doing since I blogged last? A lot!!! I missed most of May but we were busy having fun. Hopefully those pictures will make my scrapbook even though they didn't make our blog! So far, June has been very busy (and we still have Father's Day and our Anniversary to go)! We bought a fire pit so that we don't have to leave our backyard when we are feeling like some roasted Kronskis and S'mores! Vaughn is already a pro at cooking out:

We are one happy family! Guy had been home a lot this month and we love having him around! He is so sweet to take care of things at night so that we can have a ton of fun during the day! He has been taking extra care of lawn so that it is ready when Vaughn wants to run through the sprinkler:

Last weekend we went to the zoo with some of our friends! It was a little cold but that meant that we were some of the only people there. It was like our own private party:

BIG...

BROTHER!!! Yes, it's official! Some of you probably suspected that something was up. We are expecting baby #2 on November 26th! (Since it will be another c-section we can all expect an early arrival). Hooray!

Too Young to be Two!

I can't believe that this little guy is TWO!!! It seems like just yesterday I found out that I was pregnant with him. I can barely remember my labor/delivery! In most ways it seems like he has been in our lives forever. I don't know what I ever did without him! We are so lucky!


We had a birthday lunch Guy at his work and then Vaughn's favorite for dinner! He loves spaghetti! In case you are wondering why it took me so long to blog about this I have an excuse. After the spaghetti we went out for ice cream and Vaughn got SO sick! He threw up all over the ice cream place and continued to puke the entire night! On Tuesday I took him to the doctor and she gave him a miracle pill which stopped the throwing up for a few hours. We gave him another one that night but when Wednesday rolled around he was sick again! I felt so bad for him and called the doctor again. When she examined him she was afraid that it might be appendicitis and sent us to the hospital in Rock Springs! After a long visit there they determined that it wasn't his appendix. They ran a few more tests and couldn't find a reason for his sickness so they sent us home! Luckily, my parents were able to come out and help that night because Guy was gone! By Thursday he seemed a lot better. And by Saturday he was back to normal which was lucky because we had his birthday party planned that day!

We had a "construction" theme this year because Vaughn is really into trucks and tractors (this is what he calls all of the equipment)!

He loves to hit things with sticks so I thought a pinata would be a big hit. Unfortunately, he wasn't too keen on breaking the truck but there were plenty of other kids there who were more than willing.

He made out like a bandit as far as presents go! Thanks to everyone who was so generous with him!

I took this picture today and couldn't resist sharing it! This week he seems to have grown up so much. He is talking in full sentences and is so polite. He has a great sense of humor and loves to make us laugh. He always wants to go outside! He loves animals and feeds the birds! It seems like it took him a while to interact with other kids but he is finally wanting to play with them more often. He asks about his friends when they are away and can recognize them in pictures! I really don't know how I got so lucky. I am truly blessed with a great husband and son!

Some Bunny Special!

What a weekend!
Lucky for us, Guy's family decided to come visit for Easter weekend! They came on Friday night and left Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, Guy had to work the night shift all weekend so he didn't get to see much of our company. He had been working like that all week and Vaughn was seriously ready for some new faces. He had so much fun and learned the names of all of the relatives. On Saturday night we decided to dye some eggs:


Vaughn's favorite color was yellow. He kept the dye by him the entire time and let his egg get very bright! He was very good at keeping the egg moving to get an even color all around!


He tried his hardest to show off his egg to everyone. It took a lot of concentration to hold it like that!


Although we boiled quite a few eggs, we also broke quite a few. We ended up with 12 that were still safe for consumption and they were beautiful!


After the egg dying Vaughn was more than happy to pose for a couple pictures! He had so much fun. I am glad we decided to do it this year!
On Sunday morning we had an egg hunt! It was so fun to watch him pick up each egg and examine it! Each egg was such a treasure for him!

I hope that I can remember to enjoy the little things in life as much as Vaughn does. He was actually very intrigued by each egg "shell" rather than what was inside.
I am grateful that I married into such a wonderful family! They are so nice to come visit us even when they wont get to see Guy. We are all very different from one another and I feel like every time we get together we teach each other something new! Hopefully they will come again soon. Vaughn is already missing them (especially his cousin, Grace)!

Bowled Over!

The other day Vaughn was feeling a little sick. He threw up while he was at a friend's house so we promptly left and came home to get him back to feeling great! When we got home I turned on some TV and gave him a bowl so that if he needed to throw up again he could.
When I handed it to him he pretended to throw up again into the bowl. At that point I was satisfied that he knew what to do with it and I figured we were good to go. A little while later he decided to go play and took his bowl with him. What a trooper, right? Less than a minute later he came back looking like this:


What a cutie pie! Luckly the sickness seemed to have passed but he spent the rest of the day enjoying the fact that I felt sorry for him. A little while later he decided that the bowl would make a good snack!

Sarah's Key

Well, once again I have found an amazing book. I often am not interested in stories about the Holocaust because I find them so depressing. Also, I read "The Diary on Anne Frank" about a million times in school which ended up dulling my senses to the tragedy. Back then, I didn't even know that there were any other stories out there. Then I read "Maus" and "The Zookeepers Wife" which were very good and gave me new perspectives. However, neither of these stories touched me as much as "Sarah's Key". This one hit really close to home for me and I could not put it down.

Obviously this is a sad story, there were a few parts where I was crying pretty hard, but it also has a lot of hope and makes you reflect about what's important in life. The story switches views from a modern day American journalist in Paris to a young girl in France during the Vel de'Hiv round-up. I am shocked at how many people were/are affected by the Holocaust. I am grateful for those who are willing to share their stories and those who can forgive after such a tragedy.

I hope that you will read it!

Carrying on Traditions

My dad grew up in New York with his best friend, Jeff. As I grew up Jeff often came to visit. He sent me pajamas every Christmas. I always called him Uncle Jeff. When I was pregnant with Vaughn I saw them and I felt like Jeff and his wife, Jan, would be like another set of grandparents for him. Lucky Vaughn! This past weekend they came to Denver and Vaughn met them for the first time. He was in love, of course!

Please note the Elmo toy in every picture. Jeff and Jan brought it to Vaughn and he has not let it go since!

Vancouver

For those of you who don't know...

We just got home from the 2010 Olympics! Vaughn and Guy were on their very own bobsled team. Pampers was the sponsor. I was keeping it under wraps until after their performance so that they wouldn't have as many nerves to deal with! Of course they didn't let us down! They went for the gold and got it! Hopefully the Jordan bobsled team will be back in 2014 (or tonight if Vaughn gets his way).

Loading up. This part is vital to a good run. Vaughn thought that fewer clothes resulted in a more aerodynamic shape and therefore a faster run. Who are we to judge?

Discussing strategy. Dad pulls, Vaughn holds still. He tipped a few times during the practice runs and was very good at giggling while not shifting his weight.

They gained the lead (and speed) in the turn-around. I think the wood floor helped.

He makes this look easy!

After his run. He was tired but had that Olympic glow!

Here he is with his gold medal! He looks so modest. I am so proud of him. (It may or may not be a broken tape measure.)