Fun Saturdays with Dad

Thanks to Jared our kids get to "enjoy" the snow! Thankfully this year I have an excuse of having a little baby to stay indoors with. But thanks to Jared they get all bundled up and make MANY MANY FUN memories with their dad. This is how you build a snowman when it snows after Halloween!

This is Jake's pumpkin he carved...

Calebs pumpkin...

Alayna's pumpkin...

The final Snowmen picture!

Off to go sledding with the funnest dad ever!

More Baby Ben...

A BIG thank you goes to my dear friend Emily, who took time to snap a few photos of this new little guy.

I love this one!

Early Christmas Wish

Alayna has three older cousins. All of which lost their first tooth in Kindergarten. Well, Alayna's Kindergarten year came and went without a her loosing a tooth. Since she started first grade she has been "wishing and hoping" that her teeth would fall out. She has talked about this day for SO long. So on Saturday Jared took the kids out sledding, since there was SNOW on the ground. Apparently she hit her tooth on the sled...it became wiggly. To say she was thrilled was a complete understatement. She was in luck, the next morning she was getting ready for church and...(drum roll) her tooth fell out!

She quickly created a SAFE place to keep her little tooth until later that evening when she would be so excited to hide it under her pillow for the tooth fairy to come and take the tooth but leave some $$$. Well, this is where the story goes from happy to sad. Sunday evening arrives, she has said good night to us. We go through the routine of where you place your tooth, etc. But just as she has some extra nervousness (as Alayna often does), she returns back down stairs to ask yet again, MORE questions about the tooth fairy. (ridiculous if you ask me, but it was her first tooth so I figured I could play along.) Anyways, as she's holding her once safe baggy for her little tooth, she pulls on the tape no the bottom. I notice it pulls the plastic bag away from the tape. I then think to myself..."Oh, great that's all we need is a hole to end up in that bag!" So before I said anything out loud, we scooted her off to bed, up the stairs she ran...and no more than 10 seconds later we hear a blood curdling cry! You guessed it, the tooth had fallen out from downstairs to upstairs. I could hardly contain myself, so I shot Jared a look that said, "You better take over or else I might just ruin her excitement." So Jared calmly takes over, takes her upstairs and explains in great detail the "magic" of the tooth fairy. After about 15 minutes of explaining, Jared returns downstairs and is telling me what he explained to her. He said, "But this is the best part listen to what she said, "Dad, what if the tooth fairy isn't real and it's really the Mom and Dad's of kids?" Jared then said he SMILED, Alayna noticed and said, "Dad why are you SMILING? Is that TRUE??" He at that point shut her door and said, "Good night, I love you!" So thankfully Jared saved the night, kept it a secret so she could wake up SUPER excited the next morning to find a .25 cents under her pillow! Oh, the joys and drama of trying to keep secrets, or silly traditions alive for our children.

Three Weeks in...

Well as of tomorrow we are three weeks in to this new baby Ben. It's amazing how SO totally in love you can be with a new little person.

So here are some new photos of how cute his little face is...

Really, crying pictures are my favorite!

My Boys & Halloween

Jake had show and tell for preschool and he said he wanted to take a picture of him holding his new baby brother. So out came the camera and we ended up with some precious pictures of my three boys!

As you can tell Caleb is complete HEAVEN with his little brother.

And they were both "clean" so they could actually hold him.

Big brother Jake lovin his baby brother.

Cute little face. This kid eats so often that he has worn his chin red and raw.

Happy Halloween 2011 - Caleb - Green Frog - Alayna - BYU Cheerleader - Jake - BYU Football Player and Baby Ben as a Giant Pumpkin.

Thanks to my dad the kids scored HUGE this year!

One worn out cheerleader.

One BYU Football player that wishes he could keep this costume and never take it off!

My little Halloween buddy. We got to stay indoors (obviously) and pass out candy. We went to Aunt Shanny's for the picture of the kids then back home we went.

My cute BYU kids. I love it that Jared is such a Utah fan and yet his kids are staying loyal to BYU thanks to Brian and Ashley who brainwashed them from a very young age.

The boys always hanging and watching and singing too and tackling by their baby brother. Sadly, I don't have a picture with Alayna yet because she's up early and home late from school. I need to make sure I snap at least one photo of the two of them!!

A Short Story of Baby Ben

Here we are welcoming into the world our 3rd little BOY. As you all knew we did yet another surprise. I can honestly say that I was thinking for Alayna's sake we would give her a sister. But BOY were we wrong. Instead she is going to get all the "girly" attention while her brothers play and wrestle all day long.

The Dr. asked Jared how involved he would like to be in the delivery and Jared replied, "As involved as I can be." So with that in mind, he put on the gloves and literally delivered our little Benjamin Jack.

Benjamin Jack 6lbs 3 oz. 19" long born at 2:44 pm.

This labor was a dream. Besides the epidural being the worst experience ever, and not to mention it made me totally loopy, shaky and slow in the brain. This kid wanted to make an appearance quickly. I was dilated to a 5 when I came to the hospital, then after sitting for four hours getting the meds (not even pitocin) I was a 6. Then they gave me pitocin and broke my water. I went from a 6 to a 8 instantly, then he was born with in the hour they broke my water. This time around pushing wasn't even an option, he just slipped out. Honestly, it was so fast I'm just glad I ended up going in that day. I was really against being induced, but after I found out I had to be on an IV for 4 hours getting meds for being strep B positive, I decided since I was a 5 and effaced I should do what is best for the baby. Once my 4 hours were up, my water broke, I was there ready to deliver! I couldn't imagine having waited till my water broke at home, AH just thinking about it scares me. The pain was so instant and he came so quickly. I'm just beyond thankful his labor unraveled the way it did, because if not I'm sure we would have been referred to as the "drive and drop" labors. Our nurse explained those are the people who wait too long to come into the hospital and end up driving up and dropping out their babies. :) Thankfully, I listened to my dr and decided to do what was best for this little baby.

Proud Grandparents...well proud that they have another grand-baby but my mom was totally wishing and pulling for yet a baby girl! Apparently we can only produce little boys. Ben is the 10th baby boy born in our family.

Grandpa Randy, proud to have yet another little boy to pass on the family name.

Oh, me just pleased as can be that he's here, healthy and a little boy. I must admit I really LOVE my boys.

Proud dad, we can't believe we really have three boys!

Finally, we had picked a name so he wasn't referred to as the "no name" baby. Jared and I have had the hardest time throughout the pregnancy deciding on a name. We have prayed many many times to know if we had a little boy what his name would be. After months of deciding we decided to not really talk about it until we knew the gender of the baby. So after meeting this sweet little guy and looking at his sweet little face I knew between the three names we had picked he was our little Benjamin. Way back 7 years ago when we were expecting Alayna our boy name of choice was Benjamin. It never seemed to fit the other two boys, but this time around our little Benjamin arrived. Middle names are important to me. I love them to have meaning. Each child has been named after someone special. This little Benjamin was no exception. He was named after Jared's mother Jacqui, who passed away. Since we didn't end up having a little girl and being able to use her name completely, we decided and felt strongly to name him Jack. The funny thing is we never came up with the combination of the two names, not one time during our pregnancy. But isn't it amazing how prayers are answered and we know he has a special name and it feels perfect for him.

Just as sweet as can be.

I love baby feet.

Sweet little guy getting ready to head home.

And really, the tiniest little person in a big car seat. This little guy is really so special. It's amazing how during hard pregnancies I forget the end prize. This amazing love and connection to this new special baby. My heart couldn't be more full with love and gratitude to our loving Heavenly Father who truly blesses us so completely. Our little family is so thankful to have our special Benjamin in our home. There really are no words to adequately describe the love we have for him, other than we are so glad to finally have you here!