Such a cute family!

I decided that since it had been 5 years and we have had two kids since our last family picture, it was about time to get a new one done.  Off we went to Thanksgiving Point and I must say I think we got some pretty cute ones!

 

Evan's first photo shoot

Evan is definitely a boy and doesn't like to have his picture taken!  Even though he didn't enjoy it, he allowed us to get some cute shots.

A handsome fella

 Beautiful blue eyes

 Looking at mommy

 Cuddling with daddy

 Ah, this is the life!

 All snuggly and warm

And our baby is....

A boy!  Our sweet Evan Garrett is here and we couldn't be more in love!

The delivery was scheduled for May 29th but he decided he didn't want to wait that long to come to our family.  Normally I don't think any pregnant woman would complain about being pregnant a few days less than needed, but I was hoping it was just Braxton Hicks since my doctor was in China on a family vacation and I really wanted him to perform the surgery.  This is the last time we're going through this, and although I can only think of 2 people who will ever see my scar (Jimmie and my doctor if you were wondering), I wanted it to look as good as possible and aid in me trying to get my not-so-flat stomach back. :)  I went into labor at midnight on the 27th.  At first the contractions were faint and more annoying than anything so I didn't know if I was actually in labor or not.  By 3:30 the contractions were close together and extremely painful so I told Jimmie we needed to go to the hospital.  He woke up Alyssa to tell her we were leaving and off we went.


When I got to the hospital I was dilated to a 7 so our baby was definitely coming.  The nurse chewed me out for waiting so long to come to the hospital but not before I had heard the same dialogue from Jimmie on the way over.  The nurse summoned the on-call doctor and a second doctor since two doctors are needed for a c-section.  The main doctor arrived and decided he needed to make sure I knew I should have come to the hospital sooner also so I heard about it a third time.  Come on people, I am in labor and intense pain, do I really need another lecture?  I get it, I shouldn't have waited so long, but I wasn't going to risk showing up at the hospital not knowing if I was in labor and get sent home.  I've done that before and boy was it embarrassing. :)

So after the prep work was done, they finally wheeled me into the operating room for the delivery.  The anesthesiologist began to give me a spinal.  She put in the first needle and injected the numbing stuff.  Usually that's the last painful thing you feel, but for some reason I still felt her push the rest of the needle in.  Then I felt the second needle with the antibiotic.  Boy, that wasn't pleasant.  Next she inserted the spinal needle and it sent an electric shock down the left side of my body.  "Ouch!", I screamed.  Everyone in the room stopped and looked at me.  The anesthesiologist asked what had happened and I told her.  She said, "Sorry, sometimes that happens."  That's odd since I've this done 5 times before but not with that result!  Finally after I was numb, which I was grateful for the pain relief, the procedure began.  A few minutes into it I heard the cry of our new little baby.  The nurse announced, "It's a girl!" I looked at Jimmie who was wide eyed as if in shock.  Then the doctor told the nurse to look closer because it was a boy.  After looking quite nervous about the verdict, I think the doctors response made Jimmie feel more competent about my regular O.B. since he had told Jimmie the gender of our baby a few months earlier.  The nurse whisked our new little one and Jimmie off to the nursery while the doctors finished up the surgery.  I asked the doctor if he would throw in a tummy tuck since I was already cut open and he plainly said, "No."  Shouldn't that be a perk of having a c-section?  Maybe he would have been more willing if it wasn't 5:30 in the morning?

So here he is, the new man in our lives.  We are so grateful he arrived safe and sound and for the joy he has already brought to our family.  We love you Evan!

Our family has grown by 2 feet!

Lincoln isn't as keen on the idea of a new family member

We finally get to bring Evan home!

A hard decision to make...

I have been meaning to blog about this for about say 8 months now, so here goes...

     For our vacation last year we had a hard decision to make.  My parents were serving a mission in Nauvoo, IL and had been begging for us to come visit them.  (According to them, they are the only couple missionaries who had not had any family come visit them.)  They also like to remind us that we never went to visit them on their first mission in Hawaii.  It's not my fault I wanted to go visit without children, yet since they were gone I had no one to watch the kiddos...we had to wait until they got home to babysit!  :)  Our other option was to go to Florida to Disney World.  With Jimmie no longer working for Disney, we had a few Disney park passes that we needed to use before they expired.  So we weighed the options and did what every normal person would do, we decided to go to Florida and hope my parents would some day forgive us.  They have to understand, my father is one of the cheapest most thrifty people I know and those Disney park passes saved us hundreds of dollars, we'd never be able to go as cheap as now!  So off we went to sunny Florida!

Day 1: Coco Beach

     What better way to start a vacation then relaxing at the beach? We love the beach but this was by far the best beach we have ever been to!  The water was as warm as bath water, not cold like the Pacific coast water.  The shallow water also extended out for probably a good 30 feet before it dropped off which the kids loved.  They could be chest deep further off of the coast.  We spent 5 hours playing in the sand, collecting shells, and jumping waves.  

 Alyssa finding some sea life

 The kids waiting for the next wave to jump

The sand was so wet it wouldn't hold together enough to make a sand castle.  That didn't stop us though from figuring out a way...we made drip castles.  After we started our new method, we had a lot of other kids around us start copying us.  At this point we thought we were pretty cool!

Even Brainy Smurf was the lucky recipient of a drip castle.

The day couldn't have been more perfect until we were in the water jumping waves and Gavin yelled, "Ouch, ouch, ouch!"  Thinking he had probably landed on a rock, I told him to let me see his foot.  He lifted it out of the water when we saw he had a crab attached to the side of it!  This wasn't a little crab, the shell was about a 4 inch diameter.  The shear fear of seeing it scared him and he quickly kicked his leg causing the crab to fly off and back into the water.  He was so afraid to go back into the water that he spent the rest of the time on the beach.

Happiest Place on Earth

 Day 2: Hollywood Studios

     Our kids have been deprived for many years, the only characters they get their pictures taken with are the poor unimportant ones who never have a line waiting because no one else wants a picture with them.  But when Lincoln saw Woody & Buzz through a window, we knew the only way to appease this child was to meet them before going anywhere.  After waiting 90 minutes to see them we were reminded why we never wait for the most beloved characters.  I hope you remember this Lincoln, it is never going to happen again!

Finally getting our picture taken with Buzz & Woody.  Even Lincoln was wondering at this point if it was worth the wait to get a picture with them.

 In trying to pass the time while waiting, we decided to take pictures in the local scenery.  Jayden being shot from a rocket.

 I don't think I'd want to be stuck in a box with Stinky Pete.

 After the Indiana Jones show we stopped for a pic with the army decor.  Gavin & Pax love tanks!

 Meeting another one of Lincoln's all time favorite celebs.

 We found a cool speeder from Star Wars that each of the kids had to take a turn riding!

 It had just rained and Jayden didn't want to get wet.  I don't know what he was so worried about, all his siblings had already dried it off with their bums by sitting on it before him.

 Taking a rest from standing in lines for rides to catch a local show.

Would somebody let this kid know there's no standing on the tram while it's in motion?