Hanks Blessing

The day started off rough...
Woke up at 4:30am
Davis threw up in his bed at 5am
James woke up at 5:30am
crying/whining/fighting went on for the next 2 hours
Got in the shower and got dressed
My wonderful neighbor agreed to sit with Davis while we all went to church.
Fed everyone, Haws and I got everyone ready
Fed Hank and then we were off. Not 25 minutes early like planned (our ward is huge!), but still early enough. Luckily Dana's family and my parents got there earlier than us and saved seats.
Things got better from there. The blessing was beautiful and Hank was a dream boat. 

My Aunt Nancy is so awesome, she took notes for me during the blessing. Haws said he felt like he said all he wanted to say after about 2 lines... but had a few more thoughts relating to his first impressions and elaborated because he knew a 2 sentence blessing wouldn't fly. With Davis' he didn't talk much about his future (marriage, mission, etc... all the usual things and I worried).

These are the things that Haws blessed Hank with:

 That the spirit of our heavenly father would be strong and would lead and guide you throughout your life. Rely on that spirit to guide and direct you. It will do so as long as your live worthily.

Always seek first the Kingdom of God.

Blessed with the ability to discern between right and wrong and blessed to choose the right.

Blessed to pursue right endeavors.

Blessed with many choice blessing that Heavenly Father has for you.

Not much about his future life events... but I am more mellow now about worrying about those things. It was such a beautiful blessing.

We had family and friends over after... it was a houseful and I am horrible about taking pictures. So I took some of Hank after everyone left. He wasn't too happy about putting his blessing outfit back on!

Brad and Kori were here for Christmas and got to come to the blessing. It was fun to have Evy and Hank meet! Look how cute they are... little Evy with her hand on Hank :)

Love this picture of the two older boys holding "the babies". What a wonderful/crazy life we have with this crew!

Hanks Birth

I was nervous about having another c-section. Not just because of the recovery... but the actually surgery. I've had some weird reactions to the anesthesia in the past when I had spinals. Davis' birth wasn't as bad... just about 5 minutes of feeling panicked and nauseous, but they gave me something and it passed. With Calvin I honestly felt like I was going to die. My heart rate dropped and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I remember looking at Haws and thinking that I might not make it through the surgery. They gave me something to keep my blood pressure and heart rate regulated, but I still had to fight to keep my eyes open. I remember just feeling so out of it when Calvin was born.

This time around, we told the nurse who was prepping me about what had happened in the past. She gave me 2 extra bags of IV fluid and said it would help. My anesthesiologist was AMAZING! I seriously feel like Heavenly Father knew I needed a good one, who was caring and took his time. 

In the operating room he gave me a warm blanket and a pillow to snuggle with while I turned on my side and he gave me the spinal. 

The funny part was, once the spinal was in, they lay you on your back and you are just laying there naked from the chest down. The operating door was open and I could see doctors and nurses walking by. It was like "hello world, have a good look at what is going on in here!". It was more funny than embarrassing because I figured they have all seen this before. 

They tested me to make sure I was numb and I wasn't, so it took a little longer to get started. They wanted to make sure I couldn't feel a thing before they got started.

Haws looking good in his operating gear. He sat back and watched... they held up a mirror so I could see what was happening and then they said "there is a lot of fluid in there". No surprise there. I tend to have a lot of amniotic fluid. And then Dr. Froerer said "he's got a lot of dark hair!" What the?!?! I had this feeling his hair was going to be dark, but my babies have never had a lot of hair!

Then we saw the cute little guy...

 He was a screamer! 

I was so happy to be alert and able to finally hold our little Hank.

Once I was put back together... they wheeled us to our room. I started feeling sick on the way and then dry heaved once we arrived in the room. Not fun right after having your stomach cut open! I threw up a couple more times after the surgery, so I wasn't able to eat until the next morning. It was fine really. 

My parents were awesome and watched the boys while we were in the hospital. They brought them that evening. It was so fun seeing how excited they were to see their new baby brother. I felt overwhelmed after about 10 min! Those hospital rooms feel really small when you pack a bunch of boys in them.

They were pretty stocked on their gifts from Hank.

Here are some more pictures from our stay.

Look how cute our crew is!

I love the hospital stay. You get to just sit back and relax. Not worry about a single thing in the outside world. And have that special alone time with your brand new baby. The perk of having a c-section is that your hospital stay is extra long! I am so sad that this is our last time doing this. That there will be no more births, no more stays in the hospital. But I feel so blessed for the boys I have and their healthy arrivals. I will forever cherish these moments.

Christmas 2016

Oh by golly... I sure love this holly jolly time of year!

I am slacking on keeping this blog updated thanks to Instagram and chatbooks. But here is a brief run down.

Annual gingerbread house with the Lippards and Proctor crew. 

This pretty much sums up how my boys have been acting lately! Having a newborn in the cold fall/winter months has kept us cooped up more than usual and we are all feeling the effects.

Davis' turn to put the star on the tree.

Haws took me to see Home Alone accompanied by the Utah Symphony. This was the only picture we got. That photo behind us was pretty awesome.

Calvin and the ball Santa brought him at the Dowdell's Christmas party. Love this picture!

Having fun with Bop in town.

Ward Christmas breakfast.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!

I think everyone had a good time this Christmas season! Love these boys.

Davis' first day of Preschool

Davis is going to a preschool with a ton of cute little kiddos from our neighborhood. He was so excited to start school and loves it so far. I can't believe how grown up he looks! He still seems like such a little guy in so many ways... but I think this is the year he is starting to grow up. I must come to terms with it ;)