My sweet baby...

I must admit some of my favorite days in life have been the Sundays I get to stay home with my newborn babies. I love to hold them for the three hours in peace and quiet. I also love the time I'm able to spend, thinking, pondering and writing in my journal on these days. It's amazing how time just passes so quickly in life. I just melt as I hold my little ones and think of the instant love I have for them. It's amazing how humbling it is to hold these sweet little angels.

He has been eating every three hours during the day. At night he does a 4-5 hour stretch then it's on the dot back to three hours. Several people have asked me how three kids are...well, I've lucked out having several people help me. This week will be the adventure, so I will report next week. I haven't had to cook yet...I took a week off from all jobs, activities, etc. Jared's back to work - normal schedule. So bring on bed time and all three kids, cooking, cleaning and all those other things mommies do every day! Wish me luck.

Caleb is a precious little guy. He's content, happy, eats well and I feel sleeps very well for a newborn. He does not enjoy bath time or diaper changes. He's very sensitive to changing his clothing, cold wipes, and baths.

He is very content and alert. He has dark eyes (They remind me of Alayna's eyes) and when he is awake he looks all around. I will keep all my extra mushy thoughts and feelings to my personal journal entries, but let's just say he has a special, extra special place in my heart.

Duck Tape...

My dad thought my kids were being a little too much like kids (NOISY!!!)...so here is another use for duck tape! This is only the beginning of noisy children! I wish you the best of luck!!!

Alayna thought it was funny.

Jake didn't understand it. He kept trying to put the duck tape back on, but the sticky side was stuck on his fingers.

"Come what may and love it!"

Where to begin? That is a great question…because our little family’s life has changed 180 degrees within one week.

Here is the short timeline…(included for those that already know everything and don’t choose to read the long narrative…which I include for my own personal journaling reasons.)

Thursday night – a possibility of an offer being accepted on a home that was turned in like 3 months ago...we had really crossed it off our list!

Friday- confirmed our offer was accepted…but not official yet.

Sunday – Jared just called and sustained as Ward Clerk in our current ward.

Wednesday – the house closed…we get it!

Thursday – cleaning new house

Friday – moving day

Saturday – carpets cleaned, moving, etc.

Sunday – I get a new calling in current ward! (You think I’m joking!! I'm not...Yes, they do know we are moving!)

Monday – Memorial Day…moving day…we finally sleep our first night in our new home.

Tuesday – I wake up, shower, get ready and attended my prego doctor’s appointment where he tells me… “Go straight to the Hospital...you are having this baby today!” So there you have it…in one week we moved and brought home a new baby. It honestly couldn't have been better timing. Why not experience everything changing all at once.

I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin… “Come what may and love it!” This is truly how I feel lately. I have loved each new adventure. Yes, I have shed many tears for various reasons (I’d like to label them as pregnancy hormones!) but overall I am pleased with how everything has turned out…pleased beyond description. My heart is full of thanks for all my dear sweet family and friends who have come to our rescue on so many different levels. You all made this happen. Much thanks to my hubby. WOW is all I can say. He has been able to accomplish so much while he’s been home to make sure that his wife and kids are taken care of and comfortable with all these changes. Thanks to all.

But mostly thanks to our dear Heavenly Father who has guided and directed our family down an unfamiliar path. One I’m sure that is filled with more joy, adventures, love, experiences and opportunities to simply become more like Him. For that I am forever thankful for this new phase of our life. I will post several pictures and then explain them one by one! Enjoy…

Part One: Moving

Home Sweet Home... So here is the new place we are calling home. It's been a wild adventure to make this all happen, but needless to say one week later it's home. The first night we slept here was Memorial Day night. The funny story of our first morning was that Jacob and Alayna jumped up in bed with us and Jake exclaimed..."Dad...Sunny!!" Jared and I started laughing. We ALL realized how SUNNY the world is in the morning time. We have been basement dwellers for four years now and Jake has never met the sun in the morning. So with all these windows we are very aware of what sunshine is...oh, and what it brings...EARLY mornings...our kids normally would sleep in until 8:30am or even 9am (Yes, they do go to bed around 7pm...we were wild sleepers!) But now I have seen the 5AM hour...Who knew the sun came out that early? Either way, we do love the sun!

This is one of my favorite areas of the house. Three HUGE windows that are amazing for the view and sunlight. It also shows you my super cute table I got on ksl. I have been storing this table for over a year now! It's about time I wipe off the dust and decorate with something cute...(the flowers are from RPT for the baby)

I found these SUPER BRIGHT and adorable cushions at Kohl's weeks ago before I had a "house" and last night I had to venture out and get them. My kitchen was SCREAMING for color and these are exactly what this "earth toned" house needed...COLOR and lots of it!

Jake doing what he does best...escaping from the house. He has learned how to open our deep freezer and take otter pops. (The backyard)

The kitchen and bar. Yup, thanks to a Memorial Day sale I got the bar stools for a steal of a deal! Oh, love the kitchen...no above cabinet decorations! Yeah, for one area of the house to not stress me out about having to be creative. Funny feature about the kitchen sink and tall bar. Jacob wins the award for finding every possible disaster. Do you see the lovely sink faucet, well it just so happens to swing all the way around. So Jake desperately needed a drink, so what did he do? He twisted the faucet all the way around to the bar, got his drink and didn't turn off the water. I was in my bedroom and heard "water" I came running in and found him on the ground with Alayna saying..."Waterfall!" Yes, it was pouring water over the bar onto the floor. For once I'm thankful I have tile instead of hardwood flooring.

Painting...two rooms had an UGLY green color, no windows and poor lighting. So we picked a light yellow for the bathroom...I'm still deciding if I like the yellow. The ceiling is just so HIGH that the lights are bright enough for me. So who knows what we will do?

Jared helping out Shandra and Angela painting the laundry room. It's a light blue! I LOVE this room.

View from the deck.
Shandra and my Mom being busy bee's trying to get us moved in before the baby is born!
One of my FAVORITE features of the home...a deck off the kitchen! The kids LOVE it and I LOVE it even more. We had to lock out all 9 grand kids so we could actually accomplish...painting, moving in, etc.

Part Two: Let's have a Baby!

I had Jared take a picture before I lost this pregnant belly! I had a doctors appointment Tuesday morning where my doctor said, "You are a 6...then he said you are going to have this baby today!" I then said, "Why did you accidentally break my water?" He said, "No, you are bleeding again." So to make sure we could watch the baby and not have to do an emergency C-Section we were instructed to go off to the hospital.

Because my doctor wanted to make sure the baby was doing well Jared and I got to hang out doing NOTHING for about 5 hours. I wasn't even hooked up to anything, other than wearing the lovely hospital gown and visiting with Jared and monitoring the baby we just enjoyed our nurse and hospital.

Around 6:30pm my doctor arrived broke my water and hooked me up to pitocin. The baby had been doing well under the stress of bleeding and now that the doctor was right there we were ready to deliver! My family arrived around 7:30pm- sisters, parents, in-laws stopped into say hello. I was encouraging them to go eat dinner, because it was going to take awhile to deliver this baby. My pitocin level was only at 8.0 - which on my other labors I had it pumped up 20.0 for about 10 hours! So I figured this might take all night long. Well as we visited I began to get more and more uncomfortable. Then the regular feelings of labor we were starting...but the funny thing was that my "contraction" line on the monitor NEVER showed a contraction. Come to find out my monitor had fallen off and not been tracking them. So yes, I was having them with my epidural and so yes, my body was progressing even though I didn't think so. Anyways, I endured THREE MAJOR contractions that were VERY uncomfortable to the point I said, "I think I need the nurse to check me...PLEASE leave family!" Right then my nurse walked in and she had the family leave...this baby was on it's way. So then she said that I was complete and the baby was right there. She immediately called my doctor (who had just gone home!) to return back. It takes him exactly 10 minutes to arrive back at the hospital. So let's just say those 10 minutes were SO LONG!!! He thankfully walked in at 8 minutes breathing VERY heavy and red faced. He got suited up, sat down, I pushed and out came our baby...BOY! It literally happened so quickly that I was totally prepared and ready for our little surprise baby...I LOVE little boys (thanks to our Jakey!)

Baby Caleb Jared was born at 8:16pm. I must admit this labor was LOVELY and besides a few minor complications (very different than my delivery with Jacob) I felt great. And because I had such little pitocin for a short time I didn't even get the shakes, chills, etc. That was a huge bonus!

The sisters surrounding their new nephew...Angela, Shandra, Krista!

I think Caleb's big sister will keep him!

Grandma Lou & Papi are proud grandparents of 11 grand kids!

Grandpa Randy and Grandma Nettie enjoying baby Caleb.

A few more...

Jacob is LOVING his baby "bwothow baby Kay-lup!"

I can't believe that I happened to pull out the camera, take the picture and then I looked at it and realized..."Oh, my he is actually SMILING!" I always say that these sweet little newborns are remembering Heaven while they sleep! Why else would they smile so often and randomly? This is one of Jared's favorite things to do on Sunday afternoons with our newborns. He loves to fall asleep with them.

Jake saying, "CHEESE!"

The other day the kids were being so silly. They both took turns wearing "garden" hats. I just had to remember the "cute" moments while my life with three kids I'm sure will start turning upside down!!!

Curls, Curls and more Curls!

Our little Caleb has CURLY hair! I just can't get over these TIGHT curls. How funny is that?

His first bath...yes, he SCREAMED and SCREAMED. It hates getting his diaper changed and taking a bath. I'm sure this will change shortly, but I think he has only not cried twice while changing his diapers. What a little peanut baby. I must admit I like my babies tiny. I know that they will always grow and my 3 months they are chubby. So I'll take my little bird babies any day! I just love this kid.

What a sweet little baby!

Becoming "Real" Men...

Jared and my dad have talked and talked and talked for HOURS and HOURS and HOURS about building shelves...So this is simply for me and my family to remember all their talk about wood, measurements, etc. Who knew you could talk about shelves for days...FINALLY the wood was purchased and now let them become "real" men having "man" projects!

Jakey has two loves lately...a truck and "water-mayen" I love how this picture really documents our Jake...Messy, dirty and mis-matched shoes! What a cute kid.

Alayna loving the truck and watermelon two!

Our new baby!

Let me introduce you quickly to our new little bundle of joy. This is baby Caleb. He was born on May 26th weighing 6 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches. He is an absolute sweet little guy. We just got the Internet up and running in our new house so I can finally make a few posts again about all the changes happening in our life right now. When I have a spare second I will get to that. I just wanted to post another little picture of our new baby boy.

Announcing....

It's a BOY!!

...more details to come!

Has the time really come?

This is a quick update to let you all know that after four years we are moving! There are more pictures and details to come (This is a picture of Alayna in our new house by the dining room window!)...but I've had so many emails and phone calls wondering if we've had our baby that I had to post something. NOPE, no baby yet! But our new baby is a...new house! We are so excited to have found a great place here in Herriman only half a mile from where Shandra lives and another half mile of where my sister Angela lives...we are right in the middle! How perfect is that? I'll post pictures soon. So I guess the secret is out.

Shandra is sad that we are leaving...not her house but our ward! Don't worry, we are not leaving any time soon...You can't get rid of us that soon!! We love you all too MUCH!

Conner is excited to help us move because he gets to finally move down to the basement and have his dream BYU bedroom!

Happy Birthday to Jake!

Happy Birthday to Jacob!!

Yes, in case you were expecting a HUGE two year old party, this will completely surpass your expectations! How much better can it get than a "chocolate sprinkle" donut from Wal-Mart? Well, to a two year old it simply doesn't get any better!! I must give Jared the credit for introducing "donuts" to Jake. Each week when I had a baby doctors appointment and couldn't drive while on bed rest, Jared and Jake would drop me off then do grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. So one time Jared thought it would be "cute" to buy Jake a "donut" so after just a few times Jake was hooked. But Jared couldn't resist the super sweet high pitched way Jake would say, "Dadda, dough-nut?" Sadly, 5 weeks later Jake is excited to go shopping simply for a "donut!" Thankfully it doesn't result in a tantrum quite yet only a sweet request for a "dough-nut."

The proud parents of the best two year old ever!

Jacob doing his best to say, "two" and hold up two fingers...well, I think holding up "two" hands counts right?

And what birthday party wouldn't be complete with presents? Well, we did give him a present just a few days before...remember his basket ball hoop? He has LOVED it! But today I happened to find a package of toy cars that were given to him for Christmas under my bed. So I figured, hey he has no idea, we'll give it to him today for his birthday! He was super excited!

I'm so glad Jake was so understanding about not having a HUGE party! Life around here is a little busy for all the relatives (new baby), my parents on vacation with the twins, Shan & Todd going on vacation...and my other reasons why not to stress about a big party! By next year I'll be ready to host a party for a 3 year old! Tonight for FHE I decided it would be fun to watch his baby video with the kiddos. I introduced the idea about families and how little ones come to our homes. I was hoping this would introduce the idea of our new little baby #3 will be coming to our family. It worked great, the kids LOVED watching the baby Jake and how tiny he was. I think overall it was a great day for this big two year old!

Happy Birthday Jake - We LOVE you!

Announcing....a new baby!!

A new baby...Angela gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on May 9th! He is such a chunk...weighing in at 8 lbs 5 oz and 21" long. What a cute kid.

Baby Everett

One proud Aunt...I'm loving this little tiny baby thing!

The big twin brothers meeting their new baby brother Everett for the first time. Welcome to the world little baby, we are glad you finally decided to join us.