Surprise Friday #2

So, I was lame, and forgot the camera for our second Surprise Friday of the summer!!! Ryan and I took the boys to see Cars 2 on opening day!!! It was so good and we even were able to get a free Cars puzzle with each ticket stub!!!



We all really enjoyed the movie and Hudson did just fine! Carson and Dallin both thought it was AWESOME!!!

Hudson is Walking

Today Hudson decided he wasn't content crawling around anymore! He has taken his first steps! Check out the video from this evening! He has taken a few unassisted steps throughout the day, but this is a video of him really walking! Not really ready for him to be walking (he is only 8 months).

http://youtu.be/C9TP1bzNpEk (for some reason I can't get the video to embed so click on the link and you should be able to view it in you tube).

Why can't he stay my baby longer? 

Halloween Fun

Halloween Fun…

We had a fun Halloween celebration! The boys enjoyed parties at their school. As if they didn't have enough treats - we continued the festivities the next evening at our stake center where we enjoyed the annual Trunk or Treat bash!

We were rock stars this year and I will be the first to admit, I just didn’t have it in me to come up with some clever costumes. We do have fun dressing up as a family and this year was no exception (even if the costumes were not so original). 

The boys felt like rock stars so that is all that matters!!! 

Peanut #3's shirt says "Cry Loud, Rock Hard"

The older boys thought Hud-Nut looked funny in the mullet wig. 

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, we didn't go Trick or Treating but we had a great time with a few other families and really enjoyed our Spooky Feast!!! Thanks for the invite (you know who you are ;-)

We filled up on a snake calazone, bloody rats (meatloaf), a puken' pumpkin, newt eyes (deviled eggs), witches fingers, bleeding hearts (red jello cut out in heart shapes - not pictured) and some yummy spider web seven layer dip. We also had delicious desserts (I was too busy eating them to get a picture of them). 

After dinner and some time to visit we had fun watching the kiddos have race of eating donuts off a string.

 There was no cheating going on here - wink, wink!

The older kids did a good job!!! Big D did win - although he may have used his arm for assistance a time or two.

Each couple raced too (except for my hubby and me - I was seriously gagging watching the others do it, dang gag reflex). 

And so that my hubby wouldn't feel left out the men raced him too.

We had a blast and are already looking forward to next year's festivities. But for now we will prepare ourselves for Thanksgiving and Christmas!  

Happy Fun Making to you, 

For Thee We Prayed

We welcome our little one

Well – he didn’t want to wait until our scheduled c-section on August 30^th. I started having contractions during sacrament meeting at church. For the 3 hours of church, I continued to have contractions, about 20 minutes apart.

When we got home, I worked on our special back to school dinner, but had to cut back on the decorating due to the increased frequency of the contractions. We did enjoy our meal and brief celebration after dinner.

After putting the boys to bed at 8pm, Gramps and Grandma came over to stay the night with them (thank you, thank you, thank you). Ryan and I headed over to Labor and Delivery and I got hooked up to a bunch of monitors where they determined that I was indeed in labor.

So we prepared ourselves with a word of prayer and then the commotion began of getting all prepped for surgery.

Yeah we look great for the middle of the night! Ha!

At 12:03am they pulled our littlest boy out of me and with very few cries I got to meet the little man briefly then they took him to clean and weigh him while I hung out on the operating table while they finished.

About 2 hours later I got to hold him for the first time and was so surprised to find out how little he was (7lbs .07ozs and 18 inches long). The smallest of our boys!

I was hit with the emotion of this being the baby that I prayed for. I was done having kids (2 was good for me) but I turned the matter over to prayer and was humbled to realize that we were to have another. I was struck with the fact that this would be our last little one. Pregnancy is just too difficult for me and my family and to endure this again would send me to the nutty farm for sure. It was a tender moment as I stared into the eyes of this newborn, so fresh from our Father in Heaven. I felt the blessing of this little one immediately and was struck with the love of my Father in Heaven by sending me this sweetie pie.

We stayed in the hospital until Thursday and had to return the next day so that I could have an Epidural Blood Patch performed to fix the epidural headache I had developed (basically spinal fluid was leaking internally and was causing my brain to sag creating the most intense pain I have ever felt). We also have been dealing with our little one having jaundice. Daily trips to the pediatrician for blood tests and 24/7 light treatments on a light blanket (fortunately today should be the last day of the phototherapy) have been tiring but we are making it.

Our older children have welcomed their little brother with open arms. They love holding him, making faces at him, talking to him. Our middle child has only asked a few times to put him back once he heard him cry. They have nicknamed him Hud-Nut.

Overall, things have been good. Ryan has been able to see to Big D’s needs with his first and second week of school. C-Man has had the opportunity to play at friends houses (thank you to my dear friends for your help with this). We have been doing our best to keep up with the busyness of school and soccer and so far things have gone relatively smoothly.

Thank you for your well wishes on FaceBook and your prayers. We are thrilled to continue our journey to eternity as a family! 

 I am the mother of three boys. Three mighty fine boys!!!

Happy Blessings to You,

Shower for Baby

Showering with love and gifts

I felt the love as my friends hosted a shower for me! I was pretty insistent that I didn’t need a shower but I’m glad that my girlfriend, Erica, was even more insistent than I was. It was just so nice to spend time with so many of my friends and to enjoy some laughs and tender moments together.

A huge thank you to this lady (with the camera)…

…she organized the shower and allowed us to enjoy her home. Thanks Erica!!!

Many thanks to my girls Amber and Kelsey (sorry the picture is fuzzy) for the simple shower games.

Christine (the one in pink in the picture below) – the cake was just AMAZING! Thank you for sharing your talents with all of us.

I had a nice time spending time with friends I haven’t been able to do things with during this pregnancy. (Note: in most of these pictures the ladies are making play dough balls into what they think the baby will look like - such a fun game)

And this little one was so very spoiled!!! Such cute outfits and other gifts. Thank you to all who came!

Only one more week until our scheduled c-section. Here I am at 38 1/2 weeks. Oh so close!!!!

We shall see if he waits until then – I have been having a good amount of contractions, so who knows. Now if I could just get some sleep before he comes!!!

 
Happy Celebrating to you, 

I Love Vinyl

Just a few weeks left until our little one makes his grand appearance and I am trying to put the finishing touches on the nursery.

Last year I covered a bulletin board with my favorite ticking stripe and used it as part of my Christmas decorations. I decided to use it in the nursery so I hung it in the baby’s room and have had it there for a few months.

I have been trying to figure out the best way to use it. Now if I was having a girl I would have attached ribbon and made that a darling bow holder board. Something tells me that my little boy wouldn’t really need the hair bows, so I had to come up with something else.

Last week an idea popped into my head that was the perfect use of the darling bulletin board. Why not use it as a growth chart?

I usually keep a photo album that documents each week of my child’s first year, but I knew I couldn’t fit that many pictures on the board so I decided to use the board to display a picture a month for our little guy’s first year. 

I made a mat for each month (I can’t wait to start putting pictures on it) and then cut out the tag line “watch me GROW” using my handy dandy Cricut and some black vinyl. My friend Kelsey had just used that wording on one of her recent scrapbooking pages and it was perfect for this too. 

One more thing done and just a few more to do before baby comes!

Last week, at 36 weeks!

Happy Sticking To You,