Baby Pictures

Does he look a little nervous to you?

Grandpa Smith gave Baby Blake his first puppy.

11 days old already! I can't believe how fast time is going. It seemed to stand still the last week that I was pregnant. Here are just some more pictures of our new little guy. Things are still going really well. I am still so amazed at what a good sleeper he is. The kids keep asking me "when does he wake up?" I said "about 2:00 in the morning." :)

Love of Reading

I am a big reader. Although these days, I am lucky to get to read my email let alone a good book. But some of my fondest memories as a child was when my mom would read to me. There was just something about her voice that was so comforting. Being away for a couple of days and sometimes being so tired at night, it seemed like forever since I read to my kids. (Although it had only been a few days.) So one night last week, I decided to read a couple of stories to the kids. It turned into almost two hours of reading! Zach and Ethan wanted to read a "boy" book, so Ethan read a couple of stories to Zach. Even though it was really late, I didn't want to stop reading. They get so captivated and it is nice to hold them without a big basketball in the way!

Valentine's Day at School

The first graders had a fun Valentine's party planned, and it was also love of reading week. The Principal decided that Friday would be storybook character day, where the kids could dress up as their favorite storybook character. Ethan's class, however requested that for their "friendship social" that the kids dress up in their best party clothes. So here is what we came up with. Ethan wore his tie and vest that he wore for Cody and Eloise's wedding. It was great that it happened to be RED! And Katelyn was a princess of course. So much fun for them! They haven't gotten ready that fast for school in a really long time!

Daddy Daughter Dance

I keep forgetting to fix the red eyes on my pictures. I guess I am just happy that I remember to take pictures!!!

Alyssa looking more like Cinderella... (wearing her FAVORITE SHOES no less...)

With my original induction date, I was worried about how I would be able to deliver a baby and get a 5 year old ready for her first daddy daughter dance. I was so grateful for how things turned out! The boys and Alyssa and I had a fun night with pizza and a movie. I am so torn between wanting to pause time, and wanting to see what happens next. They are getting so old so fast, it is just so sad and so exciting at the same time! Katelyn was so excited to go to the dance. Dan made the night really special for her. He ordered her a corsage and everything. I wish I would have taken an after picture. She came home with her hair and her bow all out of place and she had even torn a small part on her dress. I said, "what happened?" Dan said, "a lot of crazy dancing!" They stayed for the whole dance and then went out for ice cream. What a fun memory for both of them.

Lawlor--Party of 7!

BLAKE THOMAS

FEBRUARY 8, 2009

8LBS 15 OZ, 21 1/2 INCHES

He opened his eyes the first night, and had the most confused look on his face... I said "I know, I am not quite sure what happened either..."
We are going to need a bigger boat...

I made the kids Big brother big sister tee shirts. You can't see Blake's, but his says Baby brother... They are fun to make and the nurses all love them. I will post better picts of the tshirts when I get them :)

They are like an At&t commercial... more bars in more places...

Well, it has already been a week, and what a week! I went to church on the 8th, and came home not feeling very well. By the time Dan came home from Stake Choir practice, I said, "you better call my parents." We finally left for the hospital a little before 10pm (I was contracting pretty hard by this time, but had to get all the kids clothes set out for the next day, and straighten up the kitchen.... who wants to come home to dirty dishes...) :) We got to the hospital and by this time I am in tears because it was hurting so bad. So we check in, and they send me to triage. I told her I was at a 4 1/2 on Thursday, but she still sent me for a "labor check". So I get back there, change into a way too small hospital gown, climb into the oh so uncomfortable bed. The nurse calmly comes in to hook me up to monitors, after several more painful contractions, she says, "let's check you." Ohhhh you are at an 8! I need to call your Dr! She tries to put an iv in my hand, and misses, ouch! We ditch our bags in the hallway, she and Dan run me to a delivery room, I ask (nicely!!!) for drugs, and they say "no, there is no time" I said, Tylenol? anything? They thought it was funny, I wasn't joking.... The dr comes in, I push, decide against pushing for a minute, because it hurt... then as I was laying there I thought, "I have two choices, sit here in agony or end this" So I pushed again, and out he came. Then they give me a Percocet, and a Motrin. Haha. So all in all, from the time we checked into the hospital to the time he was born was 37 minutes. I just kept saying "I did it"! I never, ever, ever thought I could do that without any meds. But I was so grateful for how things turned out. I wish I could describe to you what an amazing experience it was. There are really no words. I received a blessing earlier in the day, and I have to say that I was helped all the way through that wonderfully painful experience.

Dan was a huge comfort to me, and I had awesome nurses. I have to say it was just the best experience, I could not have planned it better. It was kind of funny because he came so fast, Dan and I were completely in shock. Dan was worried about me, so he stayed by my side to make sure I was ok. They had taken Blake to clean him up, (and weigh him, the nurses didn't believe he was only 8 lbs 15 oz, so they brought in another scale) :) finally I snapped out of it, and said, "Dan, we just had a baby! Go take his picture!!!" (We weren't expecting him until Friday...I was scheduled to be induced that day, but thank goodness he came on the 8th, I didn't want a Friday the 13th baby!)

I kept saying all along, I had the best pregnancy, and then the best delivery. So I couldn't have a good baby too, that is just not how things work. Well... he is a great baby. He rarely cries, and at night he cries to eat and then goes right back to sleep. I asked Dan if we should be worried or just really grateful that he doesn't cry. He brings such a sweet spirit to our home.

I feel really good, although I think the adrenaline is wearing off. I am exhausted. But I am recovering really fast. When I had Ethan, my dr told me that I was made to have babies. I guess she was right. I just feel so blessed. I watched Dan play soccer with the kids tonight while I was holding Blake. Really, there are no words to express how I feel about my little (haha) family. It is amazing to me how blessed we are. And even with reality sinking in, and the piles of laundry, dishes to be done, lunches to be made, etc, etc, etc... I have never been so grateful for all that I have to do.

For me, this is definitely no ordinary miracle!!!!

Texas Road House

Ethan got a 100% on his spelling test. Whenever the kids get a 100, the teacher puts a dot on their noses to let everyone know they did so well. He wouldn't wash itoff, so here is Ethan with his green nose.

We tried to explain that we were going to take him home, with or without the box...

Katelyn received a "compassion" award from school, a couple of months ago. And with that award came a free kids meal from Texas Road House. Then last week Ethan received a free kids meal for a reading accomplishment. And Dan and I received a gift certificate for Texas Road House for Christmas. Seemed like someone was telling us to go there :) and since I am all for having dinner that I don't have to cook or clean up after, we went on Friday. We tried to get there before the rush, but didn't quite make it, so we had to wait about 15 minutes. Dan and I kept saying, "they are being so good". We were quite amazed at how well behaved they were. That restraunt is usually pretty noisy, which was fine with us. I realized if we were going to take our kids out, that is a really good place because no one expects quiet there. I have to say that when I look at my kids, I think, hmmm 4 kids. No big deal. I mean, we didn't have them all at once, so we have had time to adjust, and get used to the idea of having all of them around. And then for me to be pregnant, well, it is just kind of normal for us. :) But when you walk through a crowded restraunt, I was noticing people looking at us in a "what in the world" sort of way. And I truly felt like I was in a parade, and thought maybe I should start waving or something. I kept hearing, did you see how many kids they have? I felt like saying back, we are on a school field trip, the bus is right outside. (All joking aside, sometimes I wish I had a bus so there would be a little more room for everyone/everything.) haha. Well, shortly after we were seated, they really turned the music up. Zach and Ethan got Sprite, and Katelyn and Alyssa got lemonaid. (Katelyn does NOT like soda, she says it's too hot) anyway, I am not quite sure what they put into the kids drinks because once the music turned up they turned into kids I have never seen before. Zach was dancing like a crazy guy, (he was sitting across from Katelyn and Ethan) and they both were laughing so hard at him. Which egged him on even more. It was so funny to watch, and I looked at Dan at one point, and said, "people are going to think there is something really wrong with him." :) Needless to say, we had a really fun time. We usually don't like to take the kids out to restraunts because it is inevitable that someone will melt down. But I have to say that if you have kids and you want to go out, take them there. It's so loud, no one really notices what the heck your kids are doing. One waitress said, "you should bring them back on Tuesday, it's kids night, free ice cream and everything." Dan made a good point that we should start keeping a list of all the places that do kids night. We had so much fun with them, and it helped that we didn't have to pay for food that they didn't eat. :)

*Here is Zach going crazy. The lady behind us was a little ornery, so I tried to keep him from at least hitting or kicking the bench. It is really hard to discipline a child when you are laughing so hard. (you'll probably have to pause my dumb playlist to get the full effect.)

Katelyn

So at lunch after church today we were talking to the kids about their favorite parts of church. Ethan said he loves primary, and when asked what he loved about primary, he said singing and his friends, and his teachers... Zach said he loved primary because he got to sing. And he loves his friends. He said that Lincoln and Brock are his favorite friends at church. Then we get to Katelyn. She sits up straighter in her chair, gets a thoughtful look on her face, and says, "when they talk about Jesus I feel the spririt and it makes me happy." So for all of you who are primary teachers, or who will be just know that they really are paying attention! :)

Anxiety

Usually by 34-35 weeks of pregnancy, I get really anxious. I get a little impatient, mainly because of how uncomfortable it gets to be pregnant. But this time, I am not anxious about that. I am grateful to still be pregnant and grateful to be able to carry to term without too many complications. I think that is something I have always taken for granted. Lately, though my anxiety lies with the questions of "will the baby be ok"? "Will I be ok"? What if something happens? I have heard just recently so many people that I know that are going through challenging times related to pregnancy or births and it makes me really nervous to think that maybe something bad could happen to any of us at any time. It is hard not to think of those things. All of the "what ifs". Dan is a huge comfort when I get like this, I have never seen any one have such a take things as they come kind of attitude like Dan does. It is pretty amazing to witness. Another reason for my anxiety is the fact that we are having another boy. After Zach was born, I was told by my dr. that boys don't do nearly as well as girls, as far as breathing goes. When we had Zach, he came out at 9lbs and 4oz, seemingly normal. But shortly after he was born I noticed that he was having a hard time breathing. Like he had fluid in his lungs. So my nurse took him and said "it's probably nothing, but let's just check". Shortly after that, the head nurse of the special care nursery came in and didn't have him with her. I knew that was a bad sign. She told us he may have an infection, that he stopped breathing when he was in the nursery, so they had to put an IV of antibiotics in him. Well, they couldn't get the IV in his hand, so she said, just to prepare you, it is in his head. "It looks a lot worse than what it is". Then a couple of days later, shortly before we were to be sent home, he stopped breathing while I was feeding him. We believe that he was choking, and thankfully he was hooked up to all of the monitors so all the alarms went off, and nurses came runnning, but that bought us a few more days in the hospital. So we ended up being there ten days total. I still remember the first day (actually it was in the middle of the night) that they made me go home. I was no longer a patient at the hospital, and I had to leave. I cried the whole way home, and almost couldn't bear it to see the empty basinet, and all of the things that we prepared for him. It was a good thing I was so exahusted, otherwise I don't think I would have slept at all. It is still amazing to me that during that difficult time, the amount of peace and happiness I felt, even though he wasn't home with us. I keep looking for that now, it is kind of funny in an interesting way that I don't feel that peace now, and nothing is happening. Nothing is really going wrong, in fact it seems like everything is going perfectly, with the pregnancy that is. There is still a lot of things that we are dealing with that just won't work out for some reason or another. I think the frustrating part about all of that, is that we still aren't sure where Heavenly Father wants us to be right now. Anyway, that is a whole new can of worms, and best saved for another posting. Here are some pictures of our Zach in the hospital, and then some when he was a couple of months old. I remember in the blessing that Dan gave him the day that he stopped breathing, he blessed him to be healthy and strong. He ended up being such a big baby it was sometimes really hard to carry him. I am grateful for those experiences in life that remind you that Heavenly Father is aware of you, and remembering that time is bringing comfort to me now, as I am getting ready to go through this all again. I keep thinking about this new little guy of ours, who will be here in just a month. He must really have something special to do here, at this particular time. Now I feel better. There really is something to be said about record keeping and remembering the experiences that you go through in life to see how you have been watched over, and carried even during the hardest of learning experiences.


The nurses called this his "party hat". He kept trying to pull out his IV, so they had to put this over it. Blessing day in June (about a month and a half old)
About a month old.
Zach at 3 months About 6 months old. All he could do was sit.

Zach, Zach, Zach

Ok, so this kid of mine makes me laugh every day. He just has one of those personalities that makes your day brighter. He played all day at a friend's house, (Thanks Summer, are you recovering by the way?!) and then he came home and played outside forever. So when it was time for dinner, I told everyone to go wash their hands. Well, apparently he was thirsty because I caught him not washing his hands, but drinking out of the faucet. (we do have cups...) anyway, I said "Zach, what are you doing?" "drinking". ooookkkkk, "Zach, what is on your face?" (it looked like he had eaten a whole secret stash of chocolate, of course I was wondering where that stash was....) he looks in the mirror, and says, "oh, that is called dirt." very matter of fact. Ask a stupid question.....

Some new Pictures

Recent family picture Alyssa and Elsie, what are you doing....??? :)

Cousins

Alyssa with baby Joshua



JanaKaye (Jer's wife) in the back, Eloise, (Cody's wife) me, Allison (Corey's wife) and Lindsey

Patiently waiting for their turn :)

Abby and Alyssa, I forgot to "fix" their eyes!

Apparently you can't ever be too prepared...

Zach's first day in Sunbeams