The first two weeks.

So I have officially been a mommy to two kids for two weeks. Look at me go! Ha.
I was lucky enough to have Ben home for the first 10 days after we came home  from the hospital (with Chloie he didn't take ANY time off so I was on my own from the get go) It was nice to have him around to help with Chloie and Eve. (he is such a good daddy)
It has definitely been an adjustment, and we are still struggling in a few areas.
I thought that Chloie was going to have the hardest time sharing her mommy with another baby, but that hasn't been a problem surprisingly.
She LOVES Eve, constantly wanting to hold, hug, and kiss her. She loves to help hold the bottle and wash Eve's hair. And she thinks its hilarious when Eve burps. :) She really is handling having a baby in the house really well.
The biggest problem we are having is at night time. Chloie use to be so good at going to bed in HER BED. but for the past Two weeks Ben has been sleeping on the couch with Chloie cause all she wants is her daddy and she refuses to sleep anywhere but the couch. So we have been having family sleepovers on the couch every night. Fun right?
 Our pediatrician says its just a phase it should only last a week or two more... So I'm hoping that eventually Ben and I will both be able to sleep through the night with both kids in their beds. (dream big right?!)

Today I had my first out of house experience by myself with two kids.
Eve had her Two Week check up today, and for some reason Chloie's legs were not working when I was trying to get the kids outta the car and into the doctors office, So I carried my (almost) two year old, my two week old in the car seat and the diaper bag from the car (which I had to park at the back of the parking lot) into the doctors office. Luckily the main doors have a handicap button to open the doors but when I got to the office doors I must have looked panicked because the mail man ran to open the door for me. Thankfully!
Then we found out that Eve has acid re-flux (which is why she eats so little and so often) but she is back up to her birth weight (YAY!). So after the doctors office I had to run to the grocery store to get some rice cereal and sweet potatoes to add to Eve's formula to help with the acid re-flux, and I had a few other things to grab...
LUCKY ME both kids were asleep by the time we got to the grocery store. So instead of the cart holding groceries it held my two sleeping babes while I carried all the groceries and pushed the cart... It was quite an interesting trip but I survived... and more importantly my kids survived! :) I'm hoping the next experience will be less awkward and difficult.


I am LOVING having two little girls, our house is NEVER quiet, and while there is some crying happening the majority of the noises are jabbering, giggles, and gibberish from Chloie and cooing and squeaking from Eve. (our Eve is a noisy baby, she makes noises in her sleep and while she is eating)
We are truly blessed to have two beautiful baby girls and I wouldn't trade it for anything! :)

Four Years Later

Tomorrow marks 4 years since Ben and I met on a blind date.
Yep, that's right... a blind date. Set up by my childhood friend and Ben's best friend (who are now married and have a baby boy of their own :) )
When I first saw Ben I was pretty sure we were not going to be having a second date, he just wasn't my type. But after riding trax down town and sword fighting while wearing princess tiaras and watching some pretty awesome street preformers (while sharing his coat, it was FREEZING!) I was pretty sure he was gonna be around for awhile. :)
Then on our second date he kissed me and I just knew that was going to be my last first kiss. (even though he was so nervous afterwards that he forgot my name and put my name in his phone as "m". HAHA)
And here we are... 4 year later and so much has Changed!
We're married for starters, own a home, driving two completely different vehicles then we did when we met, we have a dog, Ben is a full time fire fighter (Yipee), and I am a full time mommy to TWO KIDS! Holy crap, How things have changed. :)
But we still act like newly weds. :) I LOVE  knowing that I get to (Not have to, I GET to) spend FOREVER with this crazy, fun, handsome, sarcastic, honest to a fault, sweet, and amazing guy. Who just so happens to be an awesome daddy too! :)
So I guess what I'm trying to say is... Happy first date Anniversary to the LOVE OF MY LIFE!

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already! This year went by so fast!

We spent Christmas eve decorating sugar cookies and watching Christmas movies with my family. We also exchanged gifts between the siblings (and Chloie and Paisley exchanged their gifts too) since Jordan had to work on Christmas.
(I didn't take many pictures, I was a little tiered...)


Chloie REALLY likes to decorate with frosting, The Christmas tree we did earlier at Jordan and Whitney's house. Paisley and Jayce were done decorating theirs in like 5 mins but Chloie sat at the table by her self decorating hers for almost an hour! and She decorated some sugar cookies for Santa and spent quite a while on them. She is such a silly girl! Love it!

We also opened our Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve (Fowlks Family Tradition).

All the girls in our jammies!

 And the boys, Jayce made them all pose. It was pretty funny.

 And my little family.

Ben woke Chloie up Christmas morning to open her presents, then we headed to my parents house for biscuits and gravy for breakfast and opened a bunch of presents (Chloie is definitely spoiled by her grandparents! :)) Then we headed to Ben's parents for lunch and more presents (Chloie has more toys then I know what to do with now!) and we spent the rest of the day playing Clue and Catch Phrase. It was great! :)

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas Too!



I took a few pictures of Eve this morning, She looks so much like Chloie to me (except for her hair being darker and curly!).

And these are from last week, Chloie LOVES to hold Eve. She sit down next to me and say "Ma, I hold!" hold out her arms and wait for me to hand over the baby.

 I LOVE how tiny Eve's feet look in comparison to Chloie's!

 This outfit is from Grandma Great! It's pretty cute!

Chlo and Eve

Just wanted to add a few pictures of the girls since we've been home.

I have been switching off between nursing and formula so that Ben and Chloie get a chance to bond with the baby and I get a break. :) Wish I would have done this Chloie!

Chloie LOVES to help I let her hold the baby's bottle today and I kept trying to help her hold it but she would swat my hand away and say "No no, ma, no hands!" then whisper "I loves you" to Eve. She is in love with her sister!

She is constantly asking to hold her, she'll sit next to me on the couch and hold her arms out and say "hold pwease!" and smile at me. So I let her hold her for a few mins at a time then when I take her back Chloie starts crying and says "why?!". It's sad and cute at the same time.

I had been really worried the past few weeks about how Chloie would handle having a baby around 24/7, she is a little girl who LOVES her mommy and daddy and NEEDS our attention constantly. But she is adjusting really well so far. There have been a few fits and some naughtiness (trying to get attention) and Ben and I have been trying to switch off between the girls so they both get equal time.

Then we went to their pediatrician today for Eve's first appointment (which went really well btw, She is down to 5lbs 14ounces BUT is really healthy despite her size. good blood sugar, no jaundice, she is really alert and has no problem letting us know she's hungry :) ) Dr Jopling said that instead of trying to give Chloie constant attention (which will wear us out and could result in the baby not getting enough attention) we should set aside 5 mins every couple hours where it is all about Chloie, make a HUGE deal about what ever it is she's doing and give her lots of hugs and kisses. 

So we tried this today and it works really well, Chloie LOVES her 5 mins where both mom and dad are cheering her on while she crazy dances and hugging her and kissing her every chance we get. It made her very happy and she was really good for the time between her "Chloie time". :)

Here are some pictures!

 Eve's binki takes up the whole face I love it!

 At the Dr's office Chloie hid under the desk til he came in then yelled "BOO!"

 On the way home!

 Cheese!

And holding baby sisters bottle. :) She is the BEST big sister ever! :)

We had a baby!

Evelynne Alice Andrus

I cannot believe I had a baby today! I'm sittin in my hospital bed just watching her sleep in my lap right now. it really has been a crazy couple days!

I tried to take a nap on Saturday around 3pm, Chloie was already napping so I just snuggled up on the couch with her an fell asleep. At 330pm I woke up to strong contractions about 3minutes apart. Around 5 I decided to head out to my parents (Ben was working a 10am - 10pm shift at the fire station) I stayed at my parents til Ben got off work and came to pick me up at about 10:30pm. By that time I was having a hard time even breathing through the contraction but I was surprisingly calm. Next thing I knew we were at the hospital, admitted into L&D and I was getting an epidural!!!! Unfortunately the got a blood vessel with the fist epidural so my heart rate started dropping so I got an epidural twice, which was not bad at all surprisingly, I barely felt anything!
I stayed dilated to a 5 til my water broke at 6:15 am. It was so weird, I heard my water break. There was an audible "pop!" It kinda scared me, I had no idea where the noise came from or what it meant so I paged the nurse. Sure enough my water literally popped!
Less then an hour later I was at a ten and the baby was coming! From a 5 to a 10 in less then an hour and one push and we had our second baby girl in our arms! Easiest labor ever!
And recovery so far has been a breeze, I just barely asked for something stronger then a Motrin and I was up walking around and taking a shower about two hours after Eve was born. (My epidural had pretty much worn off right as I started pushing so I felt it all, which surprisingly was not that bad. I survived) so I was up walking within an hour. With barely any pain. :)
And Eve is a little on the small side so they keep checking her blood sugar, but so far so good! She is healthy and perfect! She is already sucking her thumb (not to thrilled about that but oh well!) she already LOVES her daddy, she seems so much more content in his arms then she is with me :( but Ben is already wrapped around her finger he ADORES her! So it's a good thing!
Chloie LOVES Eve's hair she just wants to pet her! It's cute and she kept kissing her and whispering "it's alright. Shhh" to her, it's adorable!
Ben took Chloie home to get some sleep before Eve and I go home tomorrow, so Eve and I are getting some one on one time. :)
It still doesn't feel quite real, it all happened to quickly I just can't seem to wrap my head around it!
Due to all the excitement I haven't slept at all yet, so I'm going to let them take her to the nursery for a couple hours so I can get a little sleep(hopefully).
So thank you all for all your sweet comments on our pictures and thank you to those of you who have visited us, it means a lot to us to have so much support and love from everyone. It's a little scary to go from just one kid to two so it has been amazing to be surrounded by so much love and support! I have been overwhelmed by emotion today, I cried when I held her for the first time, I can't even look at Ben with out smiling. I was unbelievably excited to see Chloie, iTs been a day of pretty much complete BLISS! I don't think today could have possibly been any better! I am on cloud 9!!!! I didn't think I could possibly have enough love to split between Chloie and eve but I love this new little girl the exact same amount as I love her big sis! All my fears were completely diminished the second I saw Chloie kiss her baby sister on the forehead and say "I lub you".
These girls are more then Ben and I could have ever dreamed of and we are THRiLLED!
Once again thank you all for all your love and support we really appreciate it! :)

Registered, Early Labor, Belly Bandit

When I was pregnant with Chloie I went into Labor before I got a chance to pre-register with Labor and Delivery at IMC. So I was a little confused when I received a call from IMC today to get registered, I've officially made it further along in my pregnancy this time then with Chloie. :) Which is a good thing.
So I'm registered and won't have to answer a million questions when I arrive and am in full blown labor. (talking while in labor is not easy... thinking while in labor is nearly impossible for that matter. haha) So it will be nice to not have to deal with that this time around! :)
I am in early labor (which I went through for about 2 weeks before I started active labor with Chloie) Which means I'm having pretty strong contractions (I can still walk and talk through them but definite pressure {nothing I can't handle}). They have been coming every 5 minutes since Sunday Morning but instead of increasing in intensity and getting closer together they are staying about the same. They did stop for about 2 hours yesterday, which was a nice break. But they came back with a vengeance ha.
 I'm hoping that instead of letting me be in early labor for 2 weeks this time my Dr will just help move things along and induce me. (Doubtful but fingers crossed, we will find out tomorrow)
Unfortunately I'm not one to complain to my Dr, partly because the walls at IMC are paper thin, I swear. so I can ALWAYS hear the lady in the next room complaining and asking a billion question about just about everything under the sun and I can tell my Dr is at his wits end by the time he walks into my room. So since my pregnancy is low risk and I'm really not that uncomfortable, and I have a mom who can answer just about every question I have :), I tend to just say I'm doing well and my appointment is over in about 10 seconds. And because of my lack of complaining I'm betting I will not be induced. :( I will have to wait it out, again.
Which I'm sure I can handle (only 16 days til my due date anyways). :)
Also I've been reading reviews for this thing called a "Belly Bandit" it's supposed to help you shrink back down to your pre-pregnancy shape super quickly. It's just a constriction band so it fits tight around your abdomen, hips, and rib cage to help them go back to "normal". I decided to get one this time cause I never felt like my rib cage went back to the way it use to be after Chloie (I swear the kid lived in my rib cage the entire time and this next one is living in my lower back and hips lol). So I'm excited to try it out and see if it helps at all.
If any one else has tried this, or something like it, let me know how it worked for you I'd love to hear about it. :) Thanks!