Rilyn Kaylee Mader!!

Yes, nearly a month after our sweet baby girl is born and I am just now blogging about her arrival. For shame! Definitely not winning "Mama of the year" award! I must say, I have had little time for anything but eating, drinking & sleeping. Ian has done everything else! Love my Super Man!

I have absolutely fallen in love yet again! 

Rilyn's name is uniquely hers. It has no meaning or origin, and yet it describes her rarity & beauty; hence the reason we were calling her "our little jewel" before revealing. The only explanation I have of her first name is that it was God-given because it popped into my head one day and I couldn't forget about it. So I chose her first name and Ian chose her middle name! "Kaylee" has been a favorite & was chosen before "Rilyn" was.

Rilyn is a wonderful baby! A few things we've noticed so far is, our girl is feisty in a fun way! She is a noise maker...grunts, snorts, sighs, squeaks, coos. She has many facial expressions! She is constantly moving. She likes her arms out of a swaddle & up by her face all the time. She likes to sleep on her side. She likes to cuddle & eat. She only cries when hungry, dirty, or really sleepy. She always burps twice. She is not shy about passing bowel movements. She gets hiccups a lot. She likes to fall asleep to movement...put her in a sling & she's out in under 5 min.

I'm going to add pictures of her birth & caption them to tell her story!  

 She's here! Born at 12:19pm, 8 pounds, 20 inches!

 C-section went well. No complications this time!

 Eyes open moments after birth & meeting big sister Karis! 

 Meeting big sister Kelsie!

Watching intently from nursery window

 Our family of 5!

A lovely picture with Psalm139:14 on it that Aunt Amy had made for Rilyn!

 So thankful that our Oregon family got to be here for her birth!

 Lovingly held by Nana & Grandad! 

Our awesome McReynolds nephews! I just love these guys! 

 Trish came to meet baby & visit with us a while!

Derrick & Cherise brought Rhyder to meet his new girl-friend! 

 Pat was our amazing 81 year old nurse! She was so fun & spunky! 
She was Cherise's nurse too when Rhyder was born! Cool lady!

Amanda was Rilyn's nurse & she was incredible! 

She had a gift waiting for Rilyn before she was born!

 Bright-eyed beauty!

 We're home 2 days later!

Dad & his 3 lovelies

Mama's sweet bundle

 Karis & Kels joined Rilyn on the playmat 
the moment I laid her on it! Sweet sisters!

Our jewel! 

Ian was able to take the whole month of January off work, so we've been enjoying family time! We are beyond blessed & thankful to the Lord for His goodness!

Goings on...

So sorry for my absence! This time of year is very busy & being 8 months pregnant makes it even more difficult to do anything but eat & sleep. ;)  The end of this year has flown by SO fast! I was just starting to enjoy October, when December suddenly rolled around. Not sure what happened to my November. Well, since pictures speak louder than words, I'll let them speak for themselves to show you what we've been up to lately.

Oct. 31st: We went to GBC's annual Country Fair!! The girls went as Cookie Monster & Elmo! They have more & more fun every year!

Nov.5th: Kare broke her arm(buckle fracture) falling out of the hammock when playing with Daddy & Kels. She was a very brave girl for X-Rays, wore her splint for 3 weeks, went back for a recheck & is all healed! Unlike her sister, this poor little thing is my accident prone princess.

 Nov.22nd: Thanksgiving!! We had a lovely feast hosted by my sweet mother-in-law who, bless her heart, cooked everything! It was really the first time the girls got to eat everything & enjoy it! 

Kels kept calling the gravy, "soup" and Kare liked dessert best! 

 Nov. 13th: My best friend Cherise welcomed her son, Rhyder, into the world! Such a blessed baby boy! 

 Nov.10th: Maternity pictures with Shannon Morton at the Pecan Farms! 

The girls still love to read, so we're reading "Little Mommy" to our baby girl.

 The 5 of us!! 

 Nov.18th: We took the girls, Nana & Grandad to the Texas
Renaissance Festival for the first time! The girls had a blast & got to ride their first pony! Very fun! We plan on going every year! 

December! Time to decorate for Christmas! It is SO fun watching these girls get excited about Jesus' birthday! A delivery driver dropped off a package and the girls answered the door. As he walked back to his truck, they yelled after him, "Bye! Thank you, Santa!!" Their favorite movie is "The Santa Clause" with Tim Allen; not ashamed to say we watch it practically every day. ;) When asked, "What's Christmas about?" they promptly reply, "JESUS!" I love watching them grow, learn & love!! 

 Decorating their li'l tree! 

 Kisses for our Hero!

 Nothin' better than Dad!

 Dancing to Christmas music and singing along to Rudolph,
Santa Claus & Frosty!

 Joy!

 They were pretending to be Mary & held their Snuggy like baby Jesus.

 Mama & her 3 jewels!

 Going through the ornaments to hang on the big tree.

 Christmas beads

 A lot of hugs shared! Kels is wearing our tree skirt!

Dec.8th: Went to the tree farm to find our Christmas tree! 

Found a girl size Santa!

Dec.10th: First cups of hot chocolate to drink all by themselves!

All bundled up & playing out in the cold weather!

Took the girls to Santa's Wonderland for the first time! When we asked Kare & Kels what they thought, the words they used were "beautiful" & "awesome". It was cold(40 degrees) but they loved it & didn't want to leave!

The next goings on 'round here are a big Mader Family Christmas 

and immediately after, we will meet our sweet baby girl! Praising the Lord for His goodness!

Baby Update!

31 weeks along and I'm aching to meet my little jewel! She moves constantly! On average, this Mama gets about 4 hours of sleep a night. It has been challenging keeping up with the twins. I can't move at the same pace anymore and bending down is getting quite difficult. Thankfully, Karis & Kelsie are very understanding and they often ask, "You ok, Mommy?!"

We have decided on a name for her, but won't be revealing it until her birth day. Ian and I have scheduled a repeat C-section on January 3rd. Ian loves the "easy-to-remember" date...1/3/13.

There's only a few things missing and we'll have her room all set up! I love how it's coming together! 

We are looking so forward to welcoming her into our lives!