Where to begin...

 I guess the bad thing about neglecting the blog for over a year is playing catch up when enough people give me grief about it.  Malia has grown so much in the last year!  She turned one in January, started walking about a week later and has been at a dead run ever since.  She is very independent and adventurous which is not always a good combination...  She idolizes her big sister and brother and is always wanting to do whatever they are doing.  She has attitude like you would not believe!

Emma did wonderful in Kindergarten!  Her and her cousins, Kaela and Carly each got an award for being Student of the Year in their classes.  She is all girl and quite dramatic.  She has a great sense of humor (which we all know she gets from her mother) and loves to play with her baby brother.  She is loving 1st grade this year and doing really good in her class.  Her favorite thing to do is make "projects" and our house is often covered in little bits of paper that she is cutting and gluing into some kind of a masterpiece.

Lucas is Lucas.  :-)  He loves any sort of hands on activity and loves to build towers with legos or blocks and knock it right down.  He is an incredibly happy kid and loves to play with anyone or anything.  He is very active and doesn't like to sit down for too long.  I've been doing a co-op preschool this year and I hope it's helping him learn how to do group activities and not just play all day.  He is obsessed with Transformers and any super hero right now.  

We have loved having lots of friends to play with.  This is Malia and her friend Capri last spring.  I love having other kids come and play so that my kids are distracted long enough for me to get a few minutes to myself.  

Holy weddings Batman!!  First my brother, Colin married Cora in September.... 

then my Mom (that's right I said my MOM ) got married in October...

and then my brother, Ian, married Aryelle (pronounced just like the Disney princess) in November!!

I hereby promise to try and keep the blog up in a more timely manner.  I make no guarantees but I will try my hardest!  Stay tuned...

Geoffrey Michael

On Sept 7, 2011 we added the last and final addition to our family. Geoffrey Michael was born at 10:06 am and weighed in at 8 lbs. 7 oz. He is a sweet little baby and hardly fusses at all. The older kids adore him!

Here's the story.... I had a Doctor's appt the week before he was born where I got an ultrasound done. The ultrasound predicted that the baby would weigh about 9 lbs. 2 oz. and my Dr and I were obviously concerned about having a baby that big. My doctor and I made the decision to have a c-section the next week to make sure there were no complications giving birth. I was very wishy washy about the whole thing and Michael and I decided that if I went into labor on my own before the c-section that we would give it a try.

My next appt was on Sept 6th and I was scheduled for a c-section on the 8th. When the doctor checked me, I was already at a 4. We talked it over and decided to stick with the plan. That night, my contractions started to pick up but since I had been having them off and on, we didn't think much of it. Michael had a draft pick for his Fantasy Football league that night (and we all know just how important that is!) so he headed off while I stayed at home timing contractions. When he got home around 10, they still weren't very regular but had definitely gotten more intense. Finally around 3 am, we called a friend from our ward, Richard Traynor, to come over and be with the kids while we went to the hospital to get checked out. Michael and Brother Traynor gave me a blessing before we left that everything would go smoothly and there wouldn't be any complications with the delivery.

When we got to the hospital I was at a 6 and 70% effaced! HOORAY!! The nurses seriously thought I would go at any time so they got everything ready and then sat back and waited...and waited... I got my epidural about 2 hours later and I was good to go. It was seriously the best epidural I have ever had. When I got to a 10, I really enjoyed watching everyone run around like chickens with their heads cut off while I sat there smiling. My nurse had me do a "trial-run" to see how I would do pushing. I told her that she needed to get the doctor there soon cause when I push, I push good. As soon as I started pushing, she yelled, "STOP! STOP! I need to go get the doctor right now!" Hmmm... seems like I had just said that... Anyway, a few minutes later, I pushed 3 times through one contraction and Geoffrey was born.

I was absolutely shocked when everyone said, "It's a BOY!!" We have never found out the sex of any of our babies but with Geoffrey, I had gotten a peek at the ultrasound because I got my doctor talking about genetic birth defects and he forgot to tell me when to turn away. I thought for sure that we were having another girl so I didn't really believe it when they said it was a boy. There goes my career as a ultrasound tech! :-)

The kids got to come see us that afternoon and my mom and Brian arrived that evening. Lucas and Malia weren't really sure what to think but Emma jumped right up on my bed and started to snuggle right away.

I am very grateful for all our friends who totally helped us with the kids that day. I didn't have to worry about any of them and it was nice to be able to have some time to rest and play with Geoffrey before I had to share him with anyone else.

Sorry about the pictures, I've tried to fix them but I can't for some strange reason...