She's a big girl now...

So blessed....

Such cute, big eyes!

Such a beautiful girl!


Crawling is sewious business!

OK... crawling is fun too!

Awwww....

Flowers, pancakes, and outside fun...

Rylee picked flowers with Grammy for Daddy's birthday...

Enjoying the teddy bear pancakes that Grampy made...

Even Kai got one!

Mmmmmmmm (translation - YUMMY!0

Content Kai.

Sad Kai.

Rylee coloring for Daddy...

The face that my Budder boy loves to make...

Kai on a mission...

Face cream fail and other pics...

My cute boy...

This pic is just so cutely awkward...

Random flower from outside...

Rylee watches me put on my face cream each morning... well, she was a tad confused this morning when she came out of Kai's room looking like this. She found his Triple Paste and thought it was face cream. Close, but no cigar.

Outside Fun

Rylee Jane - Fashionista Extraordinare

Cubby... The unmentioned 5th family member...

Father and Son

What is that crazy Rylee doing now?

Pics of the lil dude...

Watching a truck go by...

This one is just "so" Kai....

Got a little windblown!

So cute...

Happy Birthday Rylee!

I cannot believe my little girl is two. Time has gone by way to quickly!

She was blessed by family today at her birthday party and got a ton of awesome gifts!

Thank you all so much for blessing her life the way you have!

Crawling.. and other pics...

Blue eyes!

B and the kids walking downtown.


Rylee and my niece playing the piano at the childrens museum.

A new addition to Rylee's room...

CRAWLING!

Another Great Day!

More pics!

Sorry... one more of his cubby feet!

I loooooove her hair...

Kai-Man


Rylee again....

A beautiful day!

Today was such a nice day... I HAD to take advantage of it and get the kids outside! We have all had bad colds this week, so getting outside was soooo nice!

The Kai-Guy's chubby feet!

Together on the swings...

Rylee declared a no-nap day... until we got inside... I turned on her movie and a few minutes later found this... adorable!

A very special day...

Yesterday...
Rylee POOPED IN THE POTTY! She was very proud and B and I made a HUGE deal out of it. She was VERY excited once I gave her a handful of dried cherries (her motivation...).

AND - Kai can wave! He can do the wave to himself.... and he also waves to other. It is soooooo cute!

Trike and Dirt...

Today was spent playing outside taking pictures and watching Rylee play with her new pink tricycle. I put Kai on a blanket and just started snapping away...

I love this pic of Rylee...

A fun pic showing off some manual setting on my camera...

And Kai... Eating dirt.

Malakai's Birth Story

We had our repeat C/S scheduled for Friday, August 7th. I scheduled it for the latest that I could (39w4d) since I wanted to give my body a chance to go into labor on its own. I just wanted to see if it would happen! Also knowing that Rylee was so small, I didn’t want to force this kiddo out too soon and have him be really small. A part of me really hoped that he would come when HE was ready.

Well, Monday, August 3rd… I woke up and just felt off. I felt sick to my stomach and just not right. I was having a TON of Braxton Hicks that morning and just wanted them to be gone. I couldn’t play with Rylee cause everything I did caused BH. I kept waiting for them to go away. And waiting… well… Come 10am… after two hours of BH… that were fairly regular… I called my sister in law Kellie to ask her advice. She told me to call… So I did… the nurse told me to head into L&D… I called my mom to ask her to come and watch Rylee… I knew better then to eat anything just in case this was the real thing (I would have to wait 8 hours to have the c/s after a meal). I got there and was put on the monitors. To my surprise – i was having some contractions! The nurse told me that Dr. Federico was on call (best doc ever… love him) and that when a repeat c/s comes in this close to their due date, and 99.9% of the time he will just do the C/S.

I stayed on the monitors for a while, and the Dr. came in… He checked me and my cervix had not changed at all. He told me that he didn’t want to do the C/S unless I was in labor (at this point the nurse gave a what the heck look)… he asked me if I would be willing to walk the halls for a while to see what happened. I decided to. I walked the halls for about 30 minutes and couldn’t take it anymore. I came back to my room and a new nurse hooked me up (and said the SAME thing about Dr. Federico… lol). At this point the contractions were stronger and more regular. Dr. Federico came in and asked me how these were feeling… I told him they were stronger and more painful. Without a second thought he said “then we are doing this today”

At this point it was maybe 2pm – and they told me I would follow a C/S that was scheduled at 3:30 – so expect to go in at around 6:30. I called Brad and let him know to finish his day and come down. About 30 minutes later the nurse came in and said “nevermind… you are going NOW.. call your husband and tell him to come..” I was shocked! Good thing was, that a guy from his job told him to leave early, so he was already on the way.

He came in with Rylee and my parents and it was so nice to see her one last time, and get a final family pic…

Around 3:45 or so, I went back and got the spinal… that was the part I was most scared of, but it went so well. They started cutting and gave me a mirror to watch the whole thing (which was awesome). At one point, Dr. Federico leaned over the curtain and said “Leslie, you have ZERO body fat on this belly wall” lol… loved that!

Brad came in and started taping right away… he got a ton on tape and watched the whole thing. The doc used my prior incision and tried to get Kai out that way. He tried the vacuum about 5 times before he told me that Kai had a big head and he would have to make my incision bigger…

At 4:31 pm little Malakai Tholen came out! Right away I said “Is he still a boy!” and he was! He really didn’t cry very much at all, and was kinda limp.. I asked the nurse if he was ok, and she assured me that he was. He scored 7 and 9 on his apgars and was a very chill baby! He weighed in at 8lb 1oz (the doc chimed in and said “wow! Thats a big baby for you!”) and was 20 inches long.

It was such a incredable birth. It really was. I am so thankful that I was able to remember the whole thing, and was not exhausted from 30 hours of labor like I was with Rylee. I am also so happy that I watched the whole thing…I will always remember it – and thanks to Brad – I can watch it too!