Logan's Birth

Logan is finally here! Here's his official stats:

Born: Dec 23rd 2011
2:41pm
Weight: 8lbs, 10 ounces
Length: 21 inches
Gestation: 40w5d

I checked into the hospital on Thursday night to be induced. I was supposed to have a cervical softener at that point and then we'd sleep for the night. But I was having too many contractions to do that, plus the doctor checked me and I was dilated 2 cm, so they started me on a low dose of pitocin and we waited. That went on all night. I did laps in the hallways, went into the jacuzzi and tried to sleep, though that was next to impossible.

At 7am on Friday the doctor broke my water and the contractions finally started to get stronger. I got an epidural at 8:30. The nurse came in to check on me every half hour, but I just stayed at about a 5cm dilation and with the babies head too high. But then at 2pm I felt pressure from his head and when the doctor next checked I was fully dilated. I only pushed for 20 minutes and he was out! I didn't even tear even though he was just as big as Jared was and I had an episiotomy with both the other births.





Nathan's been really cute with Logan. He LOVES cuddling, so I've been trying to give him the baby as much as possible so he can sleep on him. He says cute things like "my bundle of joy" and "he's so precious" and "I love holding this guy."


My hospital experience was wonderful. The nurses were totally on top of things. I pretty much never needed to ask for anything. They were attentive to me and made sure that we got checked out in the afternoon of Christmas eve so we could be home for Christmas. After the birth I got a free massage, was able to go in a jacuzzi, and got a frozen lasagna from the hospital to take home. On the drive home we saw this awesome sunset. It was the perfect ending to a lovely experience of getting a sweet little boy!

impending birth

My due date is on Monday and let me just say it's been a long couple weeks! I've been having braxton hicks contractions pretty much everyday. Enough to get my hopes up and wear me out and/or make me oncomfortable. But apparently not enough to actually start any productive labor!

I'm also having trouble sleeping because I can stay in one position for very long before my hips ache or the blood drains out of my hands. Plus the heartburn that comes with lying down. Then there's the backaches that I get everyday!

Everyone keeps saying that it doesn't look like I've gained much weight. I suppose it must be true. I figured I'd take a belly picture two weeks into my 9th month so I could compare it to the last pregnancies. My face does look thinner, but my belly looks just as big, in my opinion. Oh well.
I was really hoping the baby would be born on the 12th so he could turn 1 or 12-12-12, but alas, the 12th came and went with nothing happening. So now it's a race between him being born on Nathan's aunt's birthday tomorrow (the 17th), my old college roomates birthday (18th) or my dad's on the 20th. And hopefully I don't go much later than that because I'd rather have some recovery time bfore Christmas!
So here are a couple pictures to show my anxiousness about wanting this baby to come. First, one of my practice sessions to get ready for taking some newborn pictures. And second, a special note just for the baby!

Christmas tree

One of the things our town/are is known for is all of the Christmas tree farms. Trees that are grown just down the street from our house get shipped all over including California and Hawaii and probably more that I don't know about.
So that means a couple things. 1) we can never get a fake Christmas tree. and 2) we can get fresh ones for really cheap (like $10) just down the street.
But anyway, we got our tree last weekend. The kids enjoyed decorating it and like to lay under it.







Jared especially likes turning all the lights off in the house to "make the tree pretty." That's pretty annoying when I'm making dinner, but its cute.

I hope your homes are feeling cozy and Christmasy too!

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with my parents and Steven and Raime. The food was all either made or preped the day before so it was totally a low stress day. The boys played football in the morning and Raime and I looked through black Friday adds while my mom played with the kids. When dinner time rolled around the kids were napping, so it was a peaceful meal too.

Then that night I went shopping with Steven and Raime for black Friday sales. We were crazy enough to go to Walmart and Target. I have to say I was impressed by the Walmart system of handling the craziness and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. At Target I didn't get the backup camera I was hoping for, but I was able to get some Christmas gifts including a picture frame pack for me that I love! I'll have to post about my new gallery once the baby is born and I print some new pictures for the wall!

We have a lot to be Thankful for. A wonderful extended family, good jobs, healthy kids, nice homes and the gosple of Jesus Christ!

Fall Leaves

Since we're already mid-way through December I figured it was about time to blog about the Fall. Now that I'm into photography I appreciate the changing colors of the leaves so much more. Here are some pictures from this year that I took around the neighborhood. All the different colors are pretty amazing!

And of course I have to include some pictures of the kids in the leaves! We took a rake to a local park so they could play in some piles. But Kayla was the only one who wanted to. Funny how that works

But both kids have been trained well that they need cooperate and pose for at least a few pictures and then I'll leave them alone :)

And just for fun. A cute picture from last month one day at home. Putting their arms around each other was their idea. I love how they're such good friends and play together so well!

Last trimester

I have about 5 weeks to go in this pregnancy. It's getting close! So I figured I should probably post pictures from my 8th month photo shoot, just in case I don't get to again. I particularly love silhouettes of pregnancy, so we had to do that. But the other ones are fun too.

Oh, and I forgot to show off my Halloween costume! I made it and it even glows in the dark, which was pretty cool when I'd walk inside somewhere dark. I've never been pregnant for Halloween before, so I definitely felt like I should do a pregnancy related costume.

Halloween

Halloween is big at our house. I like all the holidays, but Halloween is probably my favorite. It seems to be Jared's favorite too. He talked about it almost all September and on. During October he'd ask almost everyday if it was Halloween yet. Both kids love to dress up and the idea of getting free candy doesn't hurt either.
Originally Jared was going to be a knight and Kayla was going to be a princess, but Kayla's costume was a bit too small on her and I happened upon that Optimus Prime costume at Goodwill for $4 a week a half before Halloween and Jared wanted to wear it instead.
As far as Halloween activities, we watched Halloween specials, made and frosted Halloween cookies, went to the MOMS club Halloween party, and went s harvest party at my inlaws' ward.
Then on the 31st we went trick-or-treating in our town. The businesses downtown give out candy early on Halloween so all the little kids can go our while it's still light outside. It's such an awesome thing and the kids had a blast.
Of course, we got rained on, so that put a damper on things and the kids wanted to go home before the probably would have otherwise, but they still got lots of candy, which I've been helping eat over the last few weeks. Yay for Halloween!

Pumpkin patch

It has become a tradition in our family now that over the October General Conference weekend we go to a pumpkin patch with my mom in between sessions. We did that again this year. Jared enjoyed picking out a big green pumpkin with bumps on it, and both kids got a nice long ride on a train pulled by a tractor.

But then later in the month we visited another pumpkin patch. There's a really nice one pretty close to home that doesn't have any fees for entrance or parking and has a lot of free activities, so if you limit yourself to those and not buy any food you can get away with several hours of fun for completely free. Because of this I went to this pumpkin patch three times this year!

Kayla in particular, loved the animal barn! There were rabbits, pigs, a sheep, geese, and a bunch of chickens and goats that just kind of roamed all over the barn/yard area including this cool loft area. it was fun to look up and see a baby goat just a above your head! But Kayla's favorite were the baby cows. One of the reasons we went back is because she couldn't stop talking about how much she loved those baby cows!

Nathan even got to go with us on one of the weekends. He especially loved trying to apple cider and apple cider doughnuts. They were delicious!

Jared loved the huge fort he could run around on including several slides. And also swinging and playing in the hay. And yes, he threw that clump of hay right at me after I snapped this picture!

Feeding the ducks - the story

One day in October, we went to feed some ducks. This is something that Kayla loves to do.

There was a big group of ducks right at the edge of the parking lot just waiting for us. We fed them some of our bread

Then

some big geese arrived

The geese

scared Jared so he hid in the car

But Kayla was fearless. She just wanted to pet

them all!

Once

we ran out of bread Jared had no problems chasing all the birds away because that's what boys do.

Beach

We went camping at the beach last weekend with my parents. Yes, camping at the Oregon Coast in October is risky because it can get really cold/rainy, but we stayed in a heated yurt. Then the weather was perfect for a day at the beach. Here's some video of the fun, and yes I was trying to keep Jared from getting wet at the beginning because I didn't want him to be cold when we were flying kites. But it turned out that it wasn't really cold at all.



The highlights that were not filmed were when Jared got knocked over by a rogue wave and got soaked (I thought it was pretty funny, but he didnt'!) and when they found some friends to play with in the sand and built some juvenile sand castles

kid-isms

Jaredisms:

The kids were pretending to make muffins. Jared would put some "ingredient" in the bowl and then let Kayla do it, then he'd stir it and then let Kayla do it. Then they poured the "batter" into the "muffin tin" and put it in the oven. I even heard Jared say "I need to do it because I'm the mommy, but you can be the cute kid!"

Jared asked me what I thought a shark's favorite color was. I automatically choose blue since that's Jared'd favorite. But he said "no, it's red." I said "why do they like red?" and he said "because red is blood!"

Jared told me that if a bad guy came to push me in a pool that he would protect me and he said it in a really serious tone with an emphatic punch with his fists downward. It was funny.

‎"but mom, the chocolate is not for me! It's for my pet crocodile!" Yeah, good try kid.

During General Conference D. Todd Christofferson said "angelic beings." Jared asked with wonderment, "Did he just say jelly beans?"

Jared told me a "story" that was kind of funny and shows his immature logic. He said, "First I was sad and then I got on my bike and I wasn't cold anymore!"

Story that Jared told me before he took a nap
Jared: Once apon time
Me: there was..
Jared: A boy!
Me: And the boy's name was..
Jared: Jared!
Me: And he went..
Jared: to the carnival
Me: And he saw..
Jared: a ghost! In a funny mirror
Me: And was it scary?
Jared: yeah and he ran away! But then he saw a good fairy and she protected him from the ghost. And it was just the Holy Ghost!
Me: oh!
Jared: And then he walked along and he saw a tiger! And it had a scary face like this (makes a scary face) and so he ran away again. And then he saw some parrots. But the parrots were nice because parrots are nice to people. And they don't bite, they were just saying "hello."
Me: And then what happened?
Jared: Then he saw a valcano! And he ran away
Me: Because it was erupting?
Jared: Yeah. And then he started to fly on one of those white chairs we saw
(a chair lift thing that they have above the Oregon State fair)
Me: And he could see the whole fair?
Jared: Yeah
Me: And did he have fun?
Jared: yeah. The end!

Jared came in from the back yard holding two red tomatoes that he'd picked. He also had his hand behind his back. He said "look, red tomatoes." And then "I'm sorry, but I picked a green one too" and pulled out a green one from behind his back. I thought it was pretty cute and told him he did a good job at being honest.

We were watching one of the finished videos from the wedding that Nathan's editing and Jared said "When I'm big... and Kayla's big like that, can I marry Kayla?" I laughed and said no he couldn't marry his sister, but he could marry someone like Kayla. He thought about that for a bit and then said "Okay, I'll marry someone like Kayla, but can I pretend she IS Kayla?"

Kaylaisms:

She had some plastic ice cream cone and she was "feeding" it to her doggy. Then she asked for a wipe to clean his face.

Kayla does this pretend snoring thing now when she doesn't want to go to sleep at nap time

Kayla says "my" right now when she should say "me." It's cute. She'll say "he pushed my!"

She was putting some stickers all over my arm and then when she started pulling them off she realized that they were pulling on my arm hair so she'd say "does it give you an owie?" all concerned. I kept telling her I was fine, but she kept worrying about it. I don't know if Jared would have noticed my discomfort like that.

I ran into something and she said "did it hurt your belly?" and then "did it hurt your baby?" patting my stomach. It warmed my heart.

The morning after we carpet cleaned the downstairs, when Kayla first came downstairs this morning she said "Look how clean it is!" She sounded just like me, I thought it was funny.

6 months along

So, I'm 6 months along now. Everything going just fine. I'm not even gaining that much weight..yet, anyway. I've gotten a couple leg cramps in the mornings, but otherwise, not obnoxious symptoms. I haven't even had heartburn yet (crosses fingers). Anyhow, here are some pictures we took for a 6-month-pregnant photo shoot

Kayla wasn't cooperating for this picture, but Jared was. :)

I call this one 2 kids and counting..