Henry is Here!

Aaron took pics of my enormous belly the night Henry was born. We put Lucy to bed at 8pm. The contractions began around 11:00pm on March 3rd. By 12:00am, the mucous plug released the water. That was a new experience for me. My water did not break with Lucy. My sweet husband filled a wonderfully relaxing tub for me with soothing oils and Hypnobaby music in the background. We timed the pressure waves until about 1am. My body felt like pushing so my husband called Sherry Hopkins, our midwife. She arrived at 1:30 with 2 assistants. My husband and the 3 women were angels. I tried pushing on my back for a while, but did not feel right. I returned to the position that I had Lucy in... on my knees leaning over a pile of blankets. That position feels familiar and comfortable to me. My sweet husband never left my side. I love him! Minutes went by but they felt like hours. At last, the crowning moment came and I pushed. With Lucy, after the crown she squished out. Not Henry. I pushed and pushed his shoulders out. I continued to push and push his belly out. Finally his legs came out. Henry was born at 3:16am on March 4, 2011. I needed to catch my breath after the birth before they laid him in my arms. I thanked everyone in the room with me and told them how much I love them. They took me to my bed, gave me an Ibuprofen, and a banana. That banana tasted so good! It felt wonderful to lay in my own bed. The 3 women cleaned up the room, bathroom, and washed the dishes. Aaron and I were very impressed and grateful! They weighed little Henry... 9lbs. I was in shock, but it made sense. They left around 4:30am. We were exhausted but excited to get to know our new little handsome boy.

Remodel

Tiled 1200 square feet! The spirit was strong while Hector shared his thoughts as he tiled. We enjoyed having him over here every day for 2 months (Jan thru Feb). Finally finished the kitchen and bathroom. Looks beautiful!

Honk Honk

So I have been teaching Lucy the past week that when I touch her nose I say "Honk Honk". She then taps my nose and I say "Honk Honk". She likes to squeeze hard when she gets a good hold of my nose.
Tonight as we were reading our bedtime book on my lap, there happened to be a truck. I made a car noise. VvRrRrnnn, VvRrRrnnn, Beep, Beep, Honk, Honk. She immediately turned around and looked directly at my face, brought her hand up to my face and tapped my nose. I smiled and then laughed. I couldn't believe that she put the two together! She is so smart! After tapping a couple of times she then started squeezing. I pulled her hand away and she went right back for my nose and quickly began to squeeze. She loved that game. Her nails have not been cut lately so I gained a love scratch and a little blood. It was sure worth it!

Graduate Assistantship, ReachOut, & Lucy Lou

Aaron is finishing up his first year of Physical Therapy at UNLV. He has done very well in every class all year. He shares interesting and funny stories with me at dinner every night about his classmates and instructors. He just received some exciting news for this upcoming year. He has been awarded a graduate assistantship for this next year. He will be working with his professors and assisting the first year PT students who actually start school this summer. He will be required to stay on campus an extra 20 hours per week. This will be a great opportunity for him and he will receive a substantial reduction in his tuition. Yay, Aaron!

I am working for a nonprofit organization called ReachOut Health Care. I LOVE MY JOB! I get a new assignment every day to an elementary, middle, or high school. My team sets up and takes down the dental equipment in one of the rooms at the schools. We treat approximately 20 students a day. Two of which do not have any insurance or medicaid so we do it for free. I think it is a great opportunity to serve the underserved in our community. I love the kids and my teams. I am truly blessed to have an education to benefit our family needs at this time. And the best part of my job is that I only work during school hours! I am usually home between 2:30 - 3:30. Life is so good!

Lucy Lou is now almost one! Time flies so fast! We have moved 3 times since she was born. I will post her birth story later. It was a wonderfully natural experience. I love being her mommy. She is always so happy. Aaron has posted the cutest videos and pictures of her on Facebook. I have nursed her for nearly a year now and have immensely enjoyed every minute - even the middle of the night feedings when she was a newborn. I do have to admit though, that I am looking forward to weaning her in a few weeks. I do love how her daddy plays with her. She loves peek-a-boo, her doggy toys, and playing the piano. She loves to eat and her favorite food lately is watermelon. She has been so easy to love and care for.

Eventful Weekend

This past weekend was one for the journal, or at least it would be if I were at all consistent in my journal writing. On Thursday the 19th we drove down to Vegas, stopping in Cedar City to meet our new Midwife (who was wonderful). Friday morning I had my interview at UNLV and loved it. The faculty was wonderful and the first year students were helpful. That night I got on a plane and flew to Spokane Washington. In the morning I had another interview at Eastern Washington University. Their facility was very nice, but I didn't even get the chance to meet a faculty member. Following the interview I flew back to Salt Lake and by the time I got home and checked my email, there was a letter from UNLV that said Congratulations in the title. I was accepted to UNLV! Anyway, pretty happy about that. So here's the basic outline of our life right now: Graduation in April, Baby in May, PT school in June.

Like Mother Like Daughter / Pictures / Milk and Honey

At church last week, I had a cold bottle of water on my lap. It was laying against my tummy getting that spot cold. After a few minutes, I felt a strong kick from our little girl at 22 weeks pregnant. It was as if she was saying, 'I'm freezing here! Get that thing away from me!'

Aaron began reading a brochure out loud to me. I quickly borrowed it to look for any pictures inside and out and then gave it back to him exactly how he was holding it so he could finish reading it. He looked at me puzzled and wondered why I did that. I told him that I was just looking for pictures. Now he knows how much I like pictures.

Aaron and I read the Book of Mormon together every night. While he was reading one night-23 weeks pregnant, I interrupted him and told him that OJ sounded really good right now. He commented 'You are really into this tonight.' I told him 'I heard everything you said, right up to milk and honey, then you lost me.'

The Chinese and the Eskimos

We had a fantastic vacation which started right after we got the gender determining ultrasound done. We asked the technician not to tell us at that point but rather to write it down on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope for us to open on Christmas. The Chinese calendar told us that it was going to be a girl. The confirmation of the gender was official on Christmas morning after breakfast that we are indeed having a girl! We concluded that the Chinese are never wrong.

During our stay at the beautiful New Harmony Get-A-Way, we made use of the 3 feet of snow with multiple activities. We designed and built a tube slide complete with jumps and turns. Aaron's dad contributed to the slope by adding pounds of snow using his new snow blower toy. Aaron and his dad reasearched about how to build an igloo. We used shovels, hands, and a saw to cut through the icy snow to make bricks. It was beginning to look like a fort instead of an igloo because of the lack of curvature. It took us all two afternoons to complete the masterpiece and we concluded that we would have been pretty good eskimos as long as we had a really nice house to sleep in while we tried to get our igloo up to code. Jamie used the snow to make delicious snow cones for everyone.