What We Love...

We love this little boy and all the things he loves to do...

 He loves books and looking at pictures...

 He loves being upside down and "wrestling"...

He loves to drool... yay

He loves to spit and blow raspberries... 

He loves to go sledding with Dad....

...

..

.

Okay.. not really 

 He does love bananas!  Nothing else will even pass his lips without this classic shudder.

We sure do love him!

Valentine's Day Curse

I love Holidays, or any reason to celebrate for that matter.  I am beginning the think that we have a curse on Valentine's Day though because we always seem to end the day at the hospital.....

Last year I was just a couple weeks pregnant and was having terrible cramps.  Kenny had led me around on a scavenger hunt of all of our old memories, and by the end of the night I could not walk I was in so much pain.  I found myself at the doctor just to make sure everything was okay.  Turned out to be just a UTI and everything was just fine.

 This year I was hoping for a less stressful day.  We had planned to put Cade to bed and have dinner by a fire in our living room.  Wellllll..... a couple minutes before Kenny came home I had put Cade in his swing for just a couple minutes.  We always put him in his swing right before nap-time to get him a little sleepy.  I did not realize that my little boy had realized how to jump.  I turned around as I heard him cry and saw him on the ground... out of his swing.  Ah.... such a bad mother.  I felt so horrible.  I picked him up and he stopped crying and was all smiles and giggles again.  I just looked and him and said, "wow, tough boy!"  Since he did not seem bothered at all I felt like everything was just fine... till he threw up.   Then he threw up again.  Then.... he threw up again.  After calling the doctor twice they convinced us that we probably should bring him in just in case.  It was still hard to think something was wrong because he looked like this...

So we rushed to the hospital where he continued to laugh at the nurses and the doctor.  She seemed the think the throw up and fall were not related at all since he was still happy and did not show any signs of being hurt.  She sent us home and told us to just keep an eye on him!  Phew.  Cade will never have to know about any of this.  Unless he fails Kindergarten... then I might have to explain.

I think I'll pass on Valentine's Day next year.

A Birth Story... Five Months Late

Cade is laughing, rolling, and getting ready to sit up now!  Oh wait... did I even mention that we had him?

 Hmm. oh wait, no I didn't.  I have gone missing on our blog recently because, well, first I had to learn how to be a mother (Did I mention that was pretty hard? It is.)  and well I'm still learning everyday.  I do want to get caught up on our blog though because my new plan is to start printing it out every year for our "yearbook" instead of trying to remember it all and missing so many great stories!  So here I go clear back to almost five months ago...

It was time.  I mean, look at these pictures.  It was obvious I needed to have my baby outside of my oversized belly.  After getting these awesome maternity pictures done by Kelli, Attica Photography I felt all ready, or so I thought.  Then like I mentioned before we waited and waited till one week after my due date.  Cade was measuring big and so there was a lot of talk about have a C-section but I figured why not at least try and go for it?  We made our guesses for the weight, packed, and drove to the hospital.  (Kenny ran a red light just for the sake of it all)  So we went into the hospital on September 16, 2012 at night to start the whole induction process.

The doctors were going to start me on Pitocin in the morning after being on a softener all night so I thought we were in for a nice relaxing night but I was SO wrong.  After one hour of being on the softener I went into labor.  To be honest, I thought I was going to be all tough and get the epidural the last minute.  HA!  I could not believe how intense it really was!  For all you that know me really well, I really don’t tend to swear at all but you better believe I had words flying right out my mouth.  Kenny said he really enjoyed that part.  I kept trying to breathe through them but the contractions were already so close together I could barely get through one and then another would start!  So so crazy!  I look over to see if Kenny is just as miserable as me and I see this…

Some nurse thought it would be a great idea to give him a sleeping mask so he could sleep better in the hospital.  Thanks nurse.  I really owe you one….

This went on for about five hours till I gave in and got the epidural.  It did not hurt at all and I was so loopy and tired then I kept telling my “epidural guy” that I loved him and he was my new best friend.  After I got the epidural, life was so good and I got to enjoy the rest a lot more.  (Props to all the ladies who do birth natural, I seriously think you are amazing!) 

We got to talk more about baby Cade coming…

We had more time to get more nervous… Kenny had to borrow the oxygen mask for a little bit…

And I had more time to refuse more pictures…

After morning came they broke my water and everything went so fast.  I quickly dilated and could tell  Cade was coming and so fast! 

My nurse, Lori, led me through the first couple pushes.  She was so good about pumping me up and because of all the adrenaline I just felt like saying, “YA! Get that doctor in here and let’s do this thing!”  I felt all the nervousness leave my body, I was just so… excited!!  After these first pushes, Kenny looked at me and told me, “He has lots of dark hair!!”  For some reason this gave me so much motivation and I pushed like crazy!  I wanted to see your hair, I wanted to see your cheeks, and kiss your forehead!  Less than an hour later our doctor came rushing in.  I was not aware of it at the time, but they were worried that Cade was going to have breathing problems when he came out so a couple extra doctors were in the room.  I just thought it was more fan coming to cheer me on, so I was just like, “Yeah, join the party.  I love random people seeing me half naked!”  After all the doctors were present, they really let me start pushing hard.  I pushed and I pushed.  I remember praying at this moment so hard to give me strength to get through this moment not just physically but also emotionally.  I was about to see my son and all this realization was hitting while I was supposed to be pushing so hard.  I pushed one more time and the room seemed to hush and settle.  I pushed again… and heard a little cry.  Cade was here, finally here! 8 pounds and 8 ounces!   I saw them carry him across the room, and I just watched the little baby in amazement that he was mine.  He was so cute and already so funny! He immediately put his hands together as if he was saying, “Please put me back in!"

  The doctors had to check him out, so I didn’t get to hold him right away but I think what I got to see was almost even better.  I watched Ken lean down over Cade’s small perfect body and stroke his dark hair with tears in his eyes.  He kept telling him, “You are MY son, I love you”.

  I just kept thinking to myself- that is what love really looks like.  I was so happy I was able to watch Kenny fall in love with Cade.  Finally after they made sure everything was just fine, Kenny got to bring him over to me…

 and we became a family.

 We just cried together. We were so in love.   

We took him home a day later and wow, that's when the journey really begins. (TBC)

Waiting and Wishing

Nine months has seemed to go faster than the last two weeks!  Originally I was suppose to have the baby this past week!  He was seeming to be a very big baby and not dropping down so they (as in the Dr's) were planning on taking me early.  I came into my appointment the day before I was originally going to have this child and his head had dropped down and he was looking ready to come!  Wahoo!  Except that meant I had to keep waiting... and waiting.... now here I am at my due date with no baby except the one still squirming in my over sized basketball belly.  See.  Here is proof.

No not a basketball, defiantly a baby.  

So now we are just waiting and wishing that this baby will come so I don't have to wait one more week!  

We have been keeping pretty busy planning some last Hoorah's before the baby comes and also checking things off our "baby bucket list"!  

One trip that we thought was going to be our last was Lake Powell with the Buckmasters!

This is the first time that a men's XXL still was a struggle to zip up.  At least Elliot who is also pregnant had to suffer through this with me!  She is also having a little boy!  

So after this trip we were getting all ready... to only wait some more.  

So.... we went to Star Valley, Wyoming!

Don't worry I only went four-wheeling a litttllllle bit.  :)

We got to hang out with all of the soon-to-be Cade's cousins!

Introducing Kaitlyn!!!  She is only going to be a little bit older than Cade.  She is such a good baby I hope Cade learned from her how to sleep, sleep, and sleep!

 Beautiful sunset in good ole Afton, Wyoming!

So now I'm thinking okay this baby really must be coming now, I don't know how much more I can take!?!  But atlas no baby.  So we decided to check a few things off our "baby bucket list".  Like crawdad fishing!  We loaded ourselves in Dione and Taylor's minivan with everything from screen nets from old doors to spicy Cheetoes to keep the pregnant lady and little kids busy and happy.  

Then we started hunting!  At first I was very doubtful about this little adventure Kenny had set us up on.  I did not think we would catch anything... let alone this...

Yes in our little cooler, that I am pretty sure I'll never use again, are over 60 disgusting crawling crawdads!  

Here is all the girls watching the boys catch the little guys.

Little did I know the real adventure was taking the crawdads home and cooking them up.  It consisted of disgusting sounds of claws and tails being snapped and cracked off.  I got really brave and did one myself!

                          After seeing so many being torn apart, I couldn't bring myself to even eat one.  

So now I guess all we really can do is just wait and wish that the baby will come soon!  Very soon!

Wy-oming!

Our Family takes a trip to Star Valley, Wyoming every year right around Labor Day.  Well this Labor Day might actually call for real labor for me so my family was kind enough to plan another trip for Memorial Weekend. We did ALOT of fishing (and by we I mean Kenny and Paul). 

Maybe it was too much fishing....

We all went four-wheeling including us pregnant girls.  Don't worry we were careful :)

All the grandkids got to feed and ride the horses which they absolutly loved!!!

Lucy is getting so big and was running around and talking away! 

Asher got a mud bath which he wasn't so thrilled about.  



Well Hello there Evan!

The whole family only stayed for the weekend, but Kenny and I decided to stay a little longer and visit Jackson Hole and Yellowstone.

.....Aaaaand maybe tie a raft to our little car to float out on a freezing glacier lake.  It's all in a day for us.

Don't worry- Kenny found something to ride :)