Minka's Birth Story

I forgot to take my week 38 pic in the midst of all the chaos of getting ready for the hospital. I turned 38 weeks on Saturday the 8th and we headed into the hospital for induction on Sunday night. So Sunday night I took this last pic of my last bump. 

Bump #3 Weeks 36 & 37

Hello, if you're looking for me, you'll most likely find me in the restroom. I have hit the stage where I'm visiting the place what seems like every 5 minutes during the day and at least once at night. Getting out of bed has also become challenging so getting up in the middle of the night is a lot of fun.  But the BIGGEST news is that your girl didn't get the pregnant nose. How you ask? I have no earthly clue!!! It usually comes around at 36 weeks and waking up every morning without my nose and lips on swole was so strange. I also did not have any swelling to my feet this time around. No cankles, no pitting edema, no nothing. I have no idea why things have been so different this time around but I am definitely not hating it. I have hit a weight gain of 21 pounds which is a record for me for sure. 

The Last

I'm having all the feels about this being the last baby I'll ever carry. I was just so happy and blessed to have conceived #3. I just wasn't sure we'd agree on having a third. I knew how much I wanted her since I was a child and now that this pregnancy is almost over I find myself thinking of all the lasts. The last time I'll feel these annoying Braxton Hicks, the last time I'll design a nursery, the last time I'll take a maternity pic. Thanks to the Found Shop Vintage I got some pretty cool, out of the box shots of me. 

Bump #3 Weeks 34 & 35

Ok I admit it!! Tj told me a couple weeks ago that he thought I was the biggest I'd ever been pregnant and didn't want to believe him. These last two weeks have forced me to face the facts, I'm bigger than I've ever been! The scary part is I know I only have more room to grow in these last few weeks. I certainly feel like this girl has got to be bigger than the other two. I feel like I feel her kicks higher on my belly than I did the previous times but who knows. 

Maternity Shoot with Courtney Jewell Photography

Umm...so I loved these so much I couldn't wait to share them!!! Our thanks to Courtney Jewell for these amazing photos. 

So if you followed my stories on Instagram about the madness that was trying to find something to wear for this shoot than you know I completely gave up on anything maternity. I was so not into spending the kind of money that the gowns online cost and going in store was a joke. So I opted for good ole' Forever 21 and something that would fit over this 33 week belly. Both the sweater and dress are from there. My thanks to my friend Dani who shopped with me and came over to my house two days before the shoot to make this beautiful floral crown for me. 

Iceland Babymoon

Ok so ya'll know how I do, the more pictures, the longer the blog will take. And this time is just like any other, pictures galore!!

Oh Iceland!! You were good to us. Mostly because we got to sleep in and I didn't have to cook for anyone for 5 full days but also because you were incredibly beautiful. Our baby moon was exactly what we wanted and hoped for. We made this trip at 28 weeks and the flight to Iceland seemed a little problematic at first when we were told that we had to have a doctor's note to travel internationally after 28 weeks. There was no way we weren't getting on that flight. We told them we were 27 weeks and boarded. They didn't want these problems. 

It was cold and rainy for most of the days we were there but it didn't stop us from exploring as much as possible. We stayed in Reykavik, the capital, it's on the coast of Iceland. The airport is about 40 minutes away so we decided to rent a car to get around while we were there. 

Baby Hazley #3 Name Reveal

So if you follow me on social media, this is more of an explanation than a reveal!! Either way, here it is.....

Onesie

Little Miss Minka Quinn Hazley 

Bump #3 Weeks 32 & 33

My body is going to be so ready for labor. That's if frequent Braxton Hicks have anything to do with it. They have been SO FREQUENT the last two weeks. At work, at home, feet up, feet down, hydrated, and especially with a full bladder. I can feel myself slowing down and it seems a little early for that but I do recognize that there is a lot more going on this time around. 

Crane Humidifier

Cracked hands, nose bleeds and dry curls. Just some of the things I have experienced since moving to Denver. Moving from suffocating humidity to hardly any was an adjustment to say the least. But we are rounding our fourth year living here and if there's one thing I've learned, it's GET A HUMIDIFIER!!! Seriously, I don't know how we survived so long without one. Thanks to Crane we've been able to supply our girls with them and it has made a big difference in the congestion they've had already this fall. We will keep these bad boys blasting in both their room and also the baby's room next month.

Bump #3 Weeks 30 & 31

Let's go 30's!!! I'm so ready to do this, or am I? This came entirely too fast. I'm NOT READY!!!! Running around with these girls and just life in general has got me drowning in what's left to do in preparing for this babe. BUT the wallpaper is up!!! 

Bump #3 Weeks 28 & 29

Oh boy am I late with these updates. Weeks 28 & 29 don't even have an official bump photo. Ahh well, I still have some bump pics to mark the time. These two weeks included our baby moon to Iceland and thank you Jesus it was a great couple of weeks. 

Bump #3 Week 26 & 27

DOG TIRED and REFLUX!!! That's the best way to describe the last two weeks. I even had to resort to Zantac, it's awful. If the hair connection has any truth to it, she's a hairy one. Her movements have stepped up tremendously!! She is busy and the girls have been able to feel her moving and Tj can seen her from the outside on a regular basis. She was usually active during the evening hours but now is active all times of the day. I've had more lazy days than I'd like due to just pure exhaustion. I hope this is a phase and not a sign of my life for the next 3 months.

Bump #3 Week 24 & 25

"I'll take a number five with an orange juice please"! I can't tell you how many times I've repeated this in the last two weeks. I want all the sausage biscuits with egg sandwiches and hash browns. Oh and the Caesar salad kick is still going strong. What I have not fulfilled yet is my craving for Steak N' Shake's chili, don't judge me. It was also a weird couple of weeks with lots of sciatic nerve pain and a weekend feeling like complete crap. The day before I turned 24 weeks I had to leave work early due to Braxton Hicks that would not quit and an episode of vomiting that I still don't understand where it came from. I was couch ridden for the entire weekend but the rest was much needed.

Lo's TWO year update!!

Lo is two and boy are we in for some fun!! She is officially the dancing queen but prefers to get down to the most ratchet rap music around. Noelle asked me to play princess music and Lois immediately screamed out "NO"!!

Just in time for her birthday, Lois is now allowing me to style her hair without going completely nuts. I can still hardly believe it. She looks so cute with braids.

Mommy & Me

Our many thanks to Kathleen Peachey for this shoot with my oldest girls. Crazy to say it but these are my big girls! With baby sister's arrival in just a few months I am so grateful for these memories of just us three. I think we'll be filled with so much love we may just burst. I'll do my maternity shoot in several more weeks but thank God for some maternity pics without the pregnant nose!!!

Ya'll know I love me some pictures so get ready to scroll! 

Baby #3's Nursery Inspiration

The couch is OUT!!  The dreaded couch that was stopping our progress is now out of the room. This means the honey do list is made and I can finally start envisioning what this space will look like and where things will go. If you've been following my Pinterest board for the nursery than I'm sure you know I am going for a neutral vibe, I am definitely wanting to pull back from the pink walls that I did in the girls room. I want it to be clear that it's a girl room but the nature theme was calling my name. 

Bump #3 Week 22 & 23

Bump #3 Week 20 & 21

Baby girl must have heard what we were saying about her not so strong kicks because she presented me with several after we turned 20 weeks. 

Lo's 21 & 22 Month Update

Bring on the talking back! We've had so many gains in vocabulary that Lois is now ready to tell me what she's NOT going to do. One day I was calling her and telling her to come here when out of nowhere she yelled "I'm not coming"!! Stunned, I grabbed my phone trying to get her to repeat it. I thought there's no way Tj will believe this!!! This was definitely the start of letting us know what she does not like or what she's going to refuse to do. The pre 2 year old tantrums have begun and we've got a glimpse of what we're in for. 

Bump #3 Week 18 & 19

Bump #3 Week 16 & 17

Ok so I think we're only doing a picture once a week, because I can't seem to get it together enough to take a picture once a week! These two weeks brought the hunger!! When I say hungry, I don't mean like "oh I could eat something". I mean the kind of hungry where you have an entire meal and then 30 minutes later it's like you didn't take a bite!! It reminds me of the type of hunger that comes with breastfeeding and I hope it doesn't last long because my grocery bill can't handle it. 

Talk Nelly To Me

I thought it was high time for an update on my big girl. At the end of August she will be 4 and a half. Time is moving entirely too fast and with the coming of another baby, I want to make sure I'm still showing her love on the blog and documenting all the crazy and memorable things she says.

SASS-A-FRAS

I don't think there's any other way to describe Noelle right now. I think we're having more issues listening than any other time before. We've been through some stages but this selective hearing phase is wearing on my patience! And the eating, holy cow the eating!! Why does every meal take an hour and a half to finish? Begging her to eat every single bite of food, it's exhausting. As challenging as she is at the moment, she says the sweetest things to me. She is so complementary to me and I love it! I'm the best mommy, cooker, and a host of other things. I hope she remembers this at 14 years old. 

Bump #3 Week 14 & 15

Bump updates here we come!! 

I decided that I wanted to go bare belly this time around since this is all she wrote. I've always wanted to do it but was always worried about what my belly would look like towards the end. Probably should've done this the first time around. 

Just like the last two times, I have had to deal with lots of horrible stomach aches. It started around week 8 and was full force from there. Almost daily my stomach would feel so ill and sour. Ugh!! It was so hard to eat when my stomach got to this point. It slowed down a bit after week 15 and I only experience it every couple of days. Now that we're in the second trimester, I'm hoping this will come to a complete halt. Week 14 also brought back the boobs!!

Hawaii Part 2

We boarded a flight to Maui and were so excited to continue the fun!

Hawaii Part 1

Ok so when you see how many pictures I'm posting you will understand why this post took me so long to do. First, I needed the motivation to edit all of them and of course I had to wait until I announced my bump that will appear in these photos. SO MANY PICTURES, but I mean it's Hawaii so can you blame me? This trip was incredible not only because it was Hawaii but because we went with our folks!!! Our kids, best friends/travel partners and our parents.  

Ok, lets do this!! First stop, Kauai!! This was the longest trip we'd ever taken with the kids but they did awesome!!

Gender Reveal #3

Tj and I cheated this time around. Our impatience got to us and we opted for the blood test to determine the gender of the baby several weeks early. As soon as we returned from Hawaii and had our 12 week appointment we went for it. I had a lot of mixed feelings about doing a gender reveal this time around. We had such big gender reveal parties for the girls in Orlando and this time around we'd be staying in Denver and it just wouldn't be the same without all of our family and friends. But I was not ok with just checking our email for the results. Even it wasn't as big, it's still a big deal and I wanted to make sure we made it special. 

Baby Hazley #3

I can hardly even believe I'm writing this post! This baby is a prayer answered and a dream realized! For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted three children and this baby feels like the completion of our family. Tj did not buy a ticket to this train while we were dating, engaged or even married but he came around and I'm so grateful to God!! 

Lo's 19 & 20 Month Update

WORDS, we have WORDS!!! I have never in my life been so happy to hear a child say no. I'm just so proud every time she says it. Soon after Lo turned 19 months we started speech therapy sessions at home. They didn't last long though, we only did 5 sessions but I think it was a combination of timing and encouragement that got her on her way. She loves saying "amen" at the end of grace and our nightly prayers and I'm loving it.

The girl is obsessed with butts! She will take every opportunity to kiss, pinch or slap a butt if she gets the chance. And she's not particularly interested in ones that are clothed. Though while in Hawaii she did poke a random lady's butt. I don't get it but it's hilarious!!

Mother's Day Shoot with Coryn Nelson

All I wanted for Mother's Day was this shoot with my girls. As soon as I saw the promos for it, I knew this had to happen. I knew the photographer who'd get the job done was Coryn Nelson Photography. We had only worked together once before but with her body of work, I knew I'd love the result and God I really really do love them!! I made sure the girls were full and I packed plenty of snacks, this was happening and I NEEDED them to cooperate. We only had a half an hour window to do the shoot. I am always careful of choosing times that I know they'd be at their happiest. The girls were on their best behaviors and thank God all went well!!

Lo's 17 & 18 Month Update

I'm about 2 months late with this post, so I will soon be sharing Lo's 19 & 20 month update! I gotta keep this going for my girl. I am determined to do "regular" updates on her until she's 2 just like I did for Noelle. Month 17 & 18 we worried a little about Lo's speech development. She is not half the chatter box Noelle was, which is totally cool, but her lack of words started to give us a little a concern. She has the most expressive eyes I've ever seen on a child her age. She has the most incredible comprehension but just won't say a word, not even "no". 

Her words consist of:

Mommy

Daddy

Baby

...and a few others she's only said once or twice.  

The girl gets her point across EVERY TIME. It amazes me how much communication can be had with a toddler who doesn't talk! She has a personality all her own and we have no doubt she is going to be the bossy one of the sisters. She hates sharing and will scream to the top of her lungs when things don't go her way. Loud sounds or my random loud mom calls for Noelle still get her a bit jumpy, making her run into my arms as fast as she can. She's pushy and is not afraid to push and pull Noelle into whatever direction she wants her in. She is such a stinker and she makes things so much more exciting around here. 

Basement Renovation Reveal

We're here!!! WOW! This has been a long time coming and I am so excited to share with you guys our finished basement. When we first toured the house I was a little nervous about it. It felt cold and honestly pretty creepy. The basement is over a thousand square feet and Tj was determined to finish this space before some of our other projects. I did not agree but now that we have it, I couldn't imagine not taking advantage of it as soon as possible. 

A labor of love is putting it lightly. If you follow me on Instagram then you have been around for all my shenanigans down here singing and dancing. I tried to make my time down here enjoyable because Lord knows I spent SO MANY WO-MAN HOURS. We didn't do it all ourselves. We had some guys Tj knows do our dry wall, our friend Seth from our church helped out, our floors were contracted out and of course my father put his blessed hands on our fireplace. We are so grateful to everyone who helped us pull this off!

If you need a little background on our house, it was built in 1922 and we've been here since October of 2016. Our laundry room/basement bathroom is not yet renovated but it is our next major project. Ok, enough of that! Here are the before and afters.....

The guest room. 

Talk NELLY To Me

You guys!!! I've missed this space so much! These days it is hard to get here without being distracted with all that is going on in the background. And honestly just trying to balance being present for my girls as much as I can. It's been a minute since we've done an install of my girl and her sayings, so I will try not to laugh too hard as I type these. I promise we don't endorse some of these, I'm just letting you know now!

Lifestyle Shoot with Coryn Nelson

If you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen some of these pictures circulating. Recently we did a lifestyle shoot with the very talent Coryn Nelson of Coryn Nelson Photography. There were so many that I loved that posting one every few days just isn't going to cut it for me, so I decided to share more of them here. 

I cleaned the house like never before and slapped on some makeup...and got dressed, and got the girls dressed, but other than that, it was totally natural for us! Lol!! I was so happy to work with Coryn and get some updated pictures of me and the girls. 

Sister Sister

 I am so loving the stage these two are in (minus the screaming and fighting)! Now that Lois is more interested in playing with Noelle, it has been exactly what I pictured being the mom of two girls would be like (including the screaming and fighting). Noelle is such a great big sister!!! Lois is not talking yet but her big sister is quick to speak for her. They seem to get each other, while one only speaks gibberish. 

Lo's 15 & 16 Month Update

Where do I start with this one? Lord, she is one busy girl!! Lo is still refusing to say a word, well besides yelling "mommy" when she is upset or whining. No new words since the last update. Maybe she feels that it isn't necessary since she gets across whatever she wants to say without words. She is so expressive. From the side eyes, rolling her eyes, smiles, smirks and every face in between. She points to the kitchen when she's hungry or thirsty. If you don't get the point, she will go and grab her cup, place it in your hand and point to the kitchen again. 

Noelle's 4th Birthday

We decided not to have a party for Noelle this year. We toyed with the idea but in the end decided to take her Great Wolf Lodge in Colorado Springs, CO. She was not very happy about not having a party. She woke up couple mornings before her birthday and asked me why I hadn't started decorating yet. I tried explaining but she wasn't having it. The day before her birthday we took her to her school to celebrate with her classmates. They sang happy birthday and ate the cupcakes we brought. 

New Years 2018

Ok, I'm still catching up in order to post new content so bare with me. I had just a couple days off for New Years so we hopped a flight to ATL to bring in the new year with Tj's family!! Traveling with these chicks is never boring and always unpredictable. The trip was smooth (after missing our first flight and leaving 5 hours later than planned) and once we landed, we wasted no time. We played games and laughed until our sides hurt.             

Christmas 2017

Now don't laugh at me but yes I am posting Christmas post. I have vowed to start blogging again after taking a much needed break. But I have an issue with leaving out important holidays and events. I use this blog not only to share our lives with my friends and family but to serve as a reminder for me as well. It's so easy to scroll my blog to find past updates about the girls as babies and what happened two Christmas' ago. So here I am, posting these important events in our lives. You can read them or skip on to the new stuff. Thanks for coming back!! Xoxo

Christmas was incredible!!! My mother visited for nine whole days and I was ecstatic. The only bummer is that my dad was working and unable to accompany her. We did Elf on a Shelf with Noelle this year and it was a blast. We started ended Christmas Eve by making rice crispy treats for Santa Claus. Noelle claimed that "baking was much harder than she thought it was".  HA!!