Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Welcome Evelyn Elizabeth!!!

We are so excited to announce the birth of our sweet baby girl! I was thinking about writing down Evelyn's birth story and thought this was as good a place as any.

I'll start at the beginning. About a year ago I received a prompting that I chose to ignore... But it didn't take long for the shouting to start. Well, not shouting as much as not allowing me to ignore it.
I was sure we were done having kids! 3 is plenty, right?!? So we decided to pray about it... Let me tell ya, when you get a prompting that something is right, the answer is gonna go right along with that prompting... No need to ask! I guess I was hoping for a, "you're totally right! 4 Kids would be way too much for you! What were we thinking?!?" But I knew that was not gonna happen. So I knew we should have another, but I "forgot" to get a dr apt 3 months in a row and I was really unhappy. Go figure! Finally Sam said that he knew it was hard for me, but that we knew what was right and we should just get it over with. 2 weeks later I was pregnant. I was sick and all that, but the thing that was the hardest for me was that I got mean! Sam laughs at me for this, but really! I was mean to my boys! It's like the extra hormones just do not set well with me! Any who, so when we found out we were having a girl I could not believe it! I made the technician check again and had the doctor take a look-see. Girl!! And then when everyone found out they all said, "Oh! You finally get your girl!" Which, frankly, annoyed me! My boys are awesome, why would I want anything but boys, how dare you think I wanted girls instead of my boys, blah, blah, blah! (see, I told you. Mean!) ((I didn't actually say any of this, but I was sure thinking it!))

I started contracting early, but she was fine. That made me tired, therefore, meaner! The last few weeks were so long! But every kept telling me she would have to come out at some point... I had my doubts!

On the 29th of February I started having contractions that I had to concentrate to get through... It was time. I really did not want to have a baby on Leap Day, but I didn't really care at this point! We got to the hospital around 7 pm and they checked me... 4 and 50%. This was a little better than I had thought, but I was still worried they would sent me home. We walked for an hour, hoping that would get active labor to kick in, but no such luck. The nurse said she was gonna go talk to the dr on call, but wanted to know my wishes. I think she took pity on me, as I was just about crying, and they admitted me. We got settled in a room and we watched the clock tick. 11 o'clock came, 11:30, 11:50, phew! No leap baby! Around 12:45am the dr came and broke my water. And we walked again. I almost made it the whole hour, but whimped out in those last 15 minutes. We got back to the room and she checked me, 6. I was feeling good, so I turned their kind offer of helping with the pain. This was about 2am. Then came the regret! Why did I deny the help those kind doctors offered me! I started having some really tough contractions. They were about 10 minutes apart, but lasted a bit and were quite intense! About 2:30 I said I needed to push, but the doctor was unavailable. He was in a birth right then. They asked me to not push until he got in the room!!!! I waited 2 contractions, but I was sure I couldn't wait another... Just then he walked through the door. I was pushing as he was sitting down. One push her head was out. One more, the rest of her! She finally had come!!! Her head was perfect! She was only in the birth canal for about an hour so no cone head! Perfectly round! Her cry threw me! I thought that babies were babies... I was wrong! Baby girls are sweeter! Even their cry is sweeter! Then I though, "I finally got my girl"!! She really was so beautiful, even with all the goop and such. She nursed right away and was just perfect!
Then came the relief that I hadn't caved to the pain management. Like I said before, my body does not work well with extra things: hormones, pain killers, etc. I was able to get up and use the bathroom whenever I wanted. And the adrenaline rush was quite amazing!

She is now 5 weeks and 5 days old! Time is already flying by! She has started to smile and coo! I love my sweet baby Evie!

Her brothers adore her! She gets kisses ALL THE TIME and they are very aware of her and her needs. We had Stake Conference the Sunday before she was born. It was a broadcast from Salt Lake. Elder Scott spoke and one thing he said was right to brothers, something like, "protect your sisters. Tell her she looks pretty when she is dressed modestly. Help her make good choices..." Etc. Zeke heard it and has been trying his best to keep her safe and to be kind around her.

I did finally get my girl! She is just what our family needed! Heavenly Father knows us so well! He wants us to be happy! And the thing I have learned and am learning from this experience is that, sometimes we have to go through a time when we are not very happy, or even very mean, in order to get to the happy part. Yay for the happy bit!

For more photos of Evelyn go to www.andrealarsenphoto.com

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

My Sweet 8 year old!

Zeke was baptized on the 1st of August and it was such a wonderful experience!  His daddy did such a great job and Zeke was so sweet.  When he came out of the water he looked so happy, and he was so very cute!  It was just the best experience of the year (sorry Juli).  The talks by his Granny and Grandma were terrific!  Zeke is a very lucky boy to have such wonderful Grandparents.  We missed those who could not come but we are so super excited to see EVERYONE next summer! Yea for family reunions! 

Zeke is such a good boy. He's been trying really hard to choose the right and obey. He has one big job, Unloading the dishwasher, and most of the time it's just once a day, but lately it's been 2x a day and that has given him a challenge, but he always obeys and he ALWAYS sings while he works!  It's super cute!

He did not reach his goal of finishing the Book of Mormon before he was baptized, so he made a new goal, 1 year.  If he finishes it before the 20th of October he will finish it in a year.  I think he'll be able to do it.  And I keep telling him that it's awesome that he even tried to finish it so quickly.  I think it took me 2 years to finish it the first time...so...

We had some family and friends there to help make it a really great day.  Andrea, Sam's sister, took a lot of really awesome pictures of Zeke on his special day.  A few of them can be viewed on my facebook page.  They are some of the best pictures I've ever seen of Zeke.  He is such a handsome kid!  I hope you check it out.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is my Zekie boy is super cool!  I'm so glad I have him to help me while Sam is away!  It makes life SOOO much easier. Zeke, I love you!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Phew!!

You can't say I never post anything!

Enjoy!

Our Vacation!

We had such a wonderful family vacation. We went up to DC to go see some fireworks and to learn something. We accomplished our goals.
Our trip started about the time we wanted to get to our campground so that was our mentality, go with the flow!
We camped at Greenbelt park in MD (which is only $16 a night, AWESOME) and totally had a blast. We got there Saturday night, late, but had a really nice drive and we even stopped at cracker barrel. The boys love it there! Sunday, the 4th, was very nice. We had a leisurely morning and went to church. I had an amazing experience and Sam's was only so-so. We were planning on going on the metro into dc to see the fireworks, but at church the RS president was talking to me and told me in passing that they had good fireworks at the University of Maryland. What and awesome lady!!! She told us where to park and where to go to see the Best FIREWORKS Ever!!! They were so close! It was totally amazing. And we didn't have to spend any money and we were back to our campsite by 10pm. AWESOME!!! (Fireworks on the Mall are totally awesome, too. I mean, really, fireworks anywhere are totally awesome!!!)
So Day 1 was a totally amazing day!
Sleeping arrangements!
Eli and Malachi were sleeping right next to each other, but they are such great buddies that Eli would move over to him EVERY night! This is how the morning would look! I mean, how cute is that?!?
Not even kidding, EVERY MORNING!

Here we are on Day 2 at the National Zoo. I am so in love with this picture! Eli was babbling the whole time. He loves animals. It was too cute to see them all so excited to be learning new things. I was totally amazed with Zeke. He know so much. We went into the building for invertebrates and such and Zeke was naming things and telling us facts! I was totally amazed. At one time asked him where he learned all he knew... to which he relied, From books and movies (as if my question was a stupid one). He's such a smarty-pants!!! ;)


Here we are after having some nice ice cold refreshments! The Zoo is totally fun. 1 day is plenty of time to see all this zoo has to offer. By-the-by the zoo is free, but you have to pay for parking which is $21. I didn't think it was a bad deal. We loved it!



Here the boys are all strapped and ready to go! I know they loved the zoo. Look at their sweet little faces!!! They were showing off their new cool glasses! I love Target's $1 area!

Our Vacation!

Here Sam and I are after spending the day at the National Zoo. We were totally exhausted!! But what super fun day!

Eli LOVED camping!!!!! He was in the dirt any time he was not sleeping or strapped in his car seat (which we did about 30 min before we had to leave, just so he was remotely clean when we left). He is the outdoorsy type!

This was in the Museum of American Indians and I had to get a picture next to Buffy Saint-Marie. I saw her on Sesame Street Old School and she was AWESOME!!! Plus, I love seeing my name somewhere other than on a dog collar or in a tv show title... it's refreshing!

By-the-by... This museum was a little bit of a let down. I think it will be awesome in 10 years, but it's pretty new and I think needs time to grow.


This is our ham getting ready to eat a hamburger!! Here we are at the Air and Space museum. It was a lot of fun and we all had fun...WHY...because I went up to the help desk and told the man I had 3 small boys...what do we need to see? He mapped out a great tour, they got to do lots of hand-on stuff and even touch a moon rock! Super cool!



Here's my super adorable Eli! He just woke up and was so happy. I totally love this kid!





Our Vacation!

Still Air and Space and I loved this. Zeke is such an awesome kid!
I totally love this picture!

This is when we were walking in DC in the sculpture garden(?)... again I'll have to ask Zeke... it was super cool! This is a metal tree! We touched it and, yes, it was super hot!


This is us trying to be artistic with the camera. But that tree was super cool!
So we walked from the Air and space museum to the American History Museum and the first thing we see...


Bam... C3PO! What!?! The boys were totally excited! I know you can't see it in the picture, but they were!
This was the coolest museum ever!!!! It was totally cool. I loved the First Ladies gowns and seeing Kermit the Frog! and looking at the kitchen where Julia Child could have cooked! It was all amazing! If you go, plan to spend a few hours there.





Our Vacation!

So this is still at the Museum of American History. I think this says a lot about our children.
Malachi who loves attention and thrives on being in the spotlight, would love being in front of cameras and smiling his super cute smile...
And then there's Zeke... nuff said!


I thought this was super funny! A dart board of L.B. Johnson and a voodoo doll of R. Reagan. Super fun. My favorite thing was the vote wall, which sadly I didn't get a picture of, but it was this wall of voting signs. Super fun to see what tactics they tried to get people out to vote. ;)


This was in the the Natural History Museum. We couldn't tear Eli away...



He was totally mesmerized by the fish.
This was at the end of day 3.