Joseph's Blessing

Isn't he just squeezable? I searched high and low for his little outfit and ended up ordering from a shop in England. The same shop that Joshua's blessing outfit was bought.

Three of the other items we had with us for that special even were made by three of Joseph's Great Grandmothers. 

One happy family, sadly this was one of the best we could get.

I just love the picture of Aaron and Joseph below.

 Aaron gave such a beautiful blessing that set the stage for a perfect day!

 We were surrounded by wonderful family and missed those that couldn't be with us.

Loads of yummy food was served, it was quite hot outside, and the kids had a great time together. Most of all everyone got to enjoy the time together oohing and ahhing over this little bundle of joy!

Bloopers!

Sadly many pictures were taken of our new family of 5 on this special occasion and the best was seen above. Even that shot isn't great but it sure does tell a story... Josh had been running around and was sweating from head to toe with a beat red face. Rachael too had a red face and was screaming uncontrollably, she had already been changed out of her cute Sunday dress and her hair was now a mess. (the night before we had stayed up late to see fireworks, she was clearly overtired.)

These three shots below really do crack me up - 

NONE of them were intentional. Imagine that there are speech bubbles above our heads and insert your own text. Can be quite entertaining.

Joseph Keefe

The Birth Story:   *It's a long one*

After a couple of very long weeks hoping I would go into labor on my own ( I was induced with the first two and desperately wanted to go on my own this time) I was induced on June 2nd. The weeks following I did find myself in L&D twice with excruciating pain. Ended up being a kidney infection that I was put on antibiotics for - thankfully that was taken care of.

The kids stayed with their Mama and Pops that night and I actually got a good nights sleep. We were told we could get a call as early as 6:30 am so I was all ready to leave at that time the next morning. Waiting around for a simple phone call can seem like forever so I went outside with Aaron to work on a sprinkler head. Finally around 7:15 we got a call to be at the hospital for 7:45. Yes, finally :)

A few days before induction

Aaron made a time stamp of the events on our ipad as the next few hours unfolded, this is exactly how it went:

7.44 Arrive at hospital
8.15 baby monitor hooked up
8.22 Iv connected to Kim - well poking for it
8.35 Iv finally connected
8.37 wristbands given to mum and dad
8.46 dilated to 4
8.48 dr broke water
8.56 started on highest dose of pitocin
9.02 cran raspberry drink
9.08 epidural man enters
9.20 epidural complete - nice guy told funny stories
9.52 catheter in
9.56 dilated to 5
11.09 fully dilated
11.13 waiting for doc - Kim wants to push and only me here...
11.23 really wanting to push no doc yet
11.28 born

All that and our beautiful Joseph Keefe was born weighing 7 lbs 15 oz and 19 inches long. My smallest baby. The experience was a little more intense than the simple list described above but overall a pleasant one.

I was more nervous this time, not sure why. The nurse wasn't all that great and really really hurt me trying to get an iv hooked up. I've had quite a few ivs and many blood draws in my lifetime and nothing ever hurt like this. Seriously I was nearly in tears and my whole arm was later bruised and very sore. She ended up having to get another nurse in to do it and she ended up squirting blood all over the place.

I couldn't believe they were actually letting me drink juices and water as the times before I was only allowed stupid ice chips. I was so excited and drank the cran raspberry juice I love so much. 

I was also encouraged to get the epidural asap as the anesthesiologist was going into 3 c-sections. I didn't want to get stuck without an epidural so I had him come in. It was strange to have it now as I was in no pain at all and quite comfortable (other than my throbbing arm). In the times past the epidural never hurt (probably because the contractions were worse) but this time ooya, it really hurt. He was a really nice guy and did exactly what I asked for, he was experienced for sure (explained later). 

Time continued to pass and I would have a random contraction here and there but nothing else. I started to feel really lightheaded and sick to my stomach at one point and nearly passed out. They continued to pump fluids into me because they said I was severely dehydrated.  I remember looking up at the clock when the first big contraction hit and it was 10:45am. It wasn't real painful but there was a lot of pressure. The epidural was doing just as I had hoped. It took the edge off but I could still feel quite a bit of what was going on. Right after that first one they continued to come less than 3 minutes apart, I contemplated pushing the epidural button...

15 minutes later I feel severe pressure and look at Aaron - he knew something was up. I told him that I needed to push. He wanted to go out and find a nurse but I insisted he wait. A few minutes later he ran out to find one (we hadn't seen one in awhile). A nurse came in and didn't seem to believe me when I told her that I needed to push and the feeling kept getting worse and worse. She decided to check me and sure enough, there was his head.

She ran out to get my regular nurse and once again it was just me and Aaron in the room. It seemed like time passed so slowly as we waited for a nurse to come back in and I was trying so hard not to push at this point. I looked over at Aaron and told him I couldn't hold back anymore and he looked a little freaked out. 10 minutes later the nurse arrived and started to prep, 10 minutes after that the doctor arrived. Literally 5 minutes after the doctor arrived our beautiful son was born. First push and he was out, incredible!

I couldn't believe that this was my third time and it was so similar to my last. Rachael and Joseph were born one minute different. I have to just say how much I love my doctor, he is absolutely incredible and makes the experience so relaxing and memorable.

Joseph had swallowed a lot of blood and wasn't breathing at one point. I watched as they continued to suck blood from him and filled a good size bottle. Eventually he began crying and turned from purple to a normal color and I was holding him close. Unlike my first two I got to hold him in my arms and feed him in the L&D room before they took him to the nursery. He had no oxygen complications and no major jaundice problems. He was so healthy and strong and perfect.

I ended up leaving the hospital the next day. At first I thought I was crazy for leaving early but it felt so good to come home (definitely wouldn't have left if it was my first). I was lucky I even got to be induced that day, all the L&D rooms were full and all 26 recovery rooms on mother baby were full. They ended up cancelling all other inductions the next day. I got put down on the Pediatrics floor for recovery, it was ok but so different being taken care of by the Pediatric doctors. They were sweet but I felt so forgotten and the bed was so uncomfortable.

Overall a great experience and we have been blessed with a beautiful baby boy whom we love and cherish so much!

Spring Break Weekend

We had a long full-filled spring break weekend. Aaron had Friday off work so it started there for us. Most the day was spent around the house, jumping on the trampoline and playing at the park. Wrestling on the trampoline is one of their favorite pastimes. I on the other hand stay far from the trampoline while pregnant, just sitting on it while they jumped was enough for me, I had to get off after a couple minutes. We had actually gone and purchased a trampoline pad from a nice lady in Lehi. She was selling it on KSL for only $35.00 and it had never been used. We've been looking for awhile to get one but didn't want to spend crazy amounts. This one is quite nice and enables Rachael to get on and off herself without the fear of falling into the hole.

That afternoon we joined up with my parents for a walk in the river bottoms near their home. Let's just say that no one told me there was going to be a fairly steep hike involved. My pregnant body did better than expected and I was very impressed with Josh as he rode his bike up the whole way back. It was fun to be outside on a nice walk with family. I can't believe how much the river has already flooded over.
I didn't take my camera (which is a good thing as i'm sure I wouldn't have been able to hike back up with it) but my phone took some pretty good shots.

From there we headed to their home to BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs. Mmmm Yummy! Once those were all devoured we enjoyed some Strawberry Heath Shakes. My favorite shake ever!

Saturday was spent doing lots and lots of yard work. I get so into it that I was pretty frustrated when I struggle to bend over to pull weeds etc. We did managed got our front yard all sorted and I could hardly move the next day. It felt so good though and we had a lot of fun. 
That evening we had Aaron's family over for dinner and games. I BBQ'd steaks and we had a game of settlers. I nearly won but Aaron took it :)

Both Sunday and Monday we had some great family and friends over for dinner and games. It was a nice long enjoyable weekend that went way too fast.


Friday before walking to the park we were sat on the front porch waiting for Aaron to join us. In the past years we've had major bee problems, I didn't expect to be seeing some already. It wasn't long before there were a few swarming the daffodils. I quickly snapped a couple shots before moving away, I didn't want to disturb them. It's really not the bees that are the problem, it's the hornets and their crazy nests we need to sort out. Luckily those haven't appeared yet.

This last picture I couldn't help but put on. Josh found a pair of my 'fake' glasses that I once bought years ago and the kids had been playing with them. Rachael sneakily put them on one morning and was checking herself out in the mirror. She was so adorable I couldn't help but capture the moment. I think this picture says it all don't you?

Spring Break - Day 4 (Aquarium)

This morning was harder for me to get moving as I was feeling the effects of being 33 weeks pregnant. I was exhausted today and could have so easily relaxed on the couch all day but I didn't.


Our highlight of the day was our trip to the Living Planet Aquarium. I was much more impressed this time around then the first visit as it had changed quite a bit. There was a lot more to look at and for the kids to do. Josh and Rach were so well behaved and had SO much fun! 



It is very dark in the aquarium and in some places flash camera is not allowed.  So in the few places I was allowed to use my camera I took a few shots. Some of the neat things to see included a large octopus (Josh says it was his favorite), anaconda snake (huge and a little freaky), colorful tree frogs (they were so stinkin cute) and more fish than you could imagine. Sharks, turtles, eels, crocks, seahorses, jellyfish, shrimp, stingrays... you name it, it was probably there.

Another really cool exhibit were the penguins. It was by far the busiest but yet so fun to watch them.

From the aquarium we headed home, I was exhausted and couldn't wait to get home to relax and maybe eat some ice cream before starting dinner :)

Literally as soon as I had pulled into the garage I asked Josh to help Rachael unbuckle herself as I took some things in the house. I came back out and lifted Rachael out of her car seat and she started sobbing hysterically  saying 'it hurts' over and over again. Immediately I was playing mom doctor trying to find out the problem. Soon to my discovery a dislocated elbow had to be the problem. Oh dear, you've got to be kidding me. I couldn't get mad though, I had no idea how it happened. The only thing I can think of is that Josh may have been trying to help her out by pulling on her arms...no intentional injury.
Immediately I called up our doctor and got right back in the car and drove 20 minutes to their office. Rachael was such a sweetheart as she continually told me about the 'hurt' in her arm and moaned a bit as I held her. It wasn't long before she was back to her normal self. I had the doctor give me a thorough instruction as to how to pop it back in place in case it were to happen again.


Amidst that extra excitement the rest of the evening was very enjoyable. I think i'll go to bed early tonight :)

Spring Break - Day 3 (Bubbles)

Another beautiful day until currently as I sit here writing this post the wind howls outside. The wind came up so fast this evening it was frightening. Watching and hearing things crashing down the streets and things blowing against the house - I have never liked the wind, especially at night! Thankfully it was our garbage day this morning, it usually seems like the wind storms come just as everyone puts out their trash and then trash is blowing everywhere but tonight luckily it's just the empty trash cans.


On to the exciting bubbles!!!

Because this morning was so nice we decided to do more outside. We were in need of some grocery items so we went to collect those and while at the store got some fun bubble creating tools. After lunch we set outside and bubbles were definitely the highlight of the day. They were out there forever blowing bubbles and chasing them around.

 I love how every time the kids go out to play our cats follow them. Socks (our male black cat) in particular will follow the kids around and lay on the grass watching them play. Today he followed me around as I walked around with my beloved camera and would just stare at me like in this picture below. Wonder what he was thinking...

 Another special item of the day were these delicious fudge bars. I let the kids pick out a treat and they chose these. 20 bars came in a box for $3.00 - we'll be eating these for awhile. Yum!

Spring Break - Day 2 (Mario and Smoothies)

Today was our Cleaning and Mario day. We got the house cleaned and played games including Super Mario Bros. Wii.  Joshua is brilliant at this game and it really does take a lot of team work. I had a blast playing with him and we managed to complete a whole world. It was a major accomplishment :)

At lunch time I let the kids choose where they would like to go for lunch. I was so excited when they chose to go get smoothies. We absolutely LOVE Smoothie King so we headed out.
I got these two beauties for FREE! That's right absolutely free and we enjoyed every slurp :)

This tired sleeping beauty found herself a nice comfortable spot on the couch and tucked herself in for a nice long needed nap.

 Don't you think the daffodils are beautiful! So nice to see some vibrant yellow outside.

Spring Break - Day 1 (Portraits and Parks)

Looking at the weather forecast for this week I was a little bummed. It's spring break and I was really hoping to do a lot outside. Monday being the first day I decided to do my annual spring photo shoot of the kids. I like to get updated photos of the kids every year around Easter so it was time.

After getting the kids ready and starting off a great morning we headed outside. It was colder than I thought it was going to be so we planted ourselves on the front porch. My lovely daffodils had bloomed and I thought it would be cute to let them each pick one. Rachael's ended up pretty much in pieces from her loving and smelling it so much and Joshua's has made it into a Lightning McQueen cup that is sitting on our kitchen table. He keeps watering it and it looks just as it did when he picked it.

We weren't out there too long but I did my best to take some good shots. Between Josh pulling hysterical faces because he was cold and Rachael refusing to smile or look at me I managed to capture these beauties.

The kids were now done and wanted to go inside. I was happy as I had gotten and absolutely stunning picture of Rachael and a great shot of Josh but not completely satisfied. I so badly wanted a decent one of them both smiling at least in my direction. But I went in as I didn't want to make it a bad experience. Minutes after entering the house Aaron arrived home for lunch - I was thrilled! He always has the kids full attention so I knew he could help.
We quickly went straight back out and in a matter of 2 minutes, literally, I was able to snap these. That gorgeous smile from Rachael is all for her daddy.

I was so happy - I LOVED the turn out! Now I was ready to tackle the rest of the day. Right after lunch we set out to the park. Three different parks and 3 hours later we returned home ready for some rest. Even though I had put sunscreen on my face I got burnt of course and the kids had nice lovely sun-kissed faces.

It was a great start to the week! That evening we had a long needed game of settlers with Marcus, Nichole and Natalie. Aaron won! :)

Success!!

Motherhood can definitely be very challenging at times, even more so at times because I am pregnant.

But today I feel success as a mother, these past few weeks i've been working on some major projects and today I feel great joy and accomplishment.

Project one was Rachael's new room. It was time to move her into another room in preparation for the baby to arrive and before doing so I wanted to decorate it for her birthday. After a week of painting, decorating and searching for the right bedding I finally finished it. She loves it, I love it and it's been great moving her in there. (pictures will be posted soon)

Project two: Potty Training. I started a couple months later with Rachael than I did with Josh but I knew I needed to do it soon if I wanted to get this accomplished before the baby. We started two weeks ago and there were days I seriously wanted to quit and give up, I was too exhausted and being big and pregnant wasn't helping at all. I persevered and today we had our first day with no accidents. Such an amazing feeling. Last week for an early birthday present we took Rachael to Disney on Ice and even there she told me she needed to go potty. Over the last week we've only tended to have an accident or two a day (usually when she is outside playing) and today was perfect! We were even out running errands for 2 hours and she told me she needed to go, I couldn't be more happier.
Another huge plus is that she has been dry at night for the past week. Even more amazing!

There is still a lot of work in progress but a day like today makes me happy. My little girl is turning 2 tomorrow and it's a bittersweet feeling. Where does the time go?

Josh has also been a HUGE help in all this and is growing up way too fast. He's already reading really well and is still full of 100 questions a day. Most the time questions I do not have answers for. He loves school and it's so cute to watch him and Rachael play together. They really are best friends and I only hope it stays that way.

There are rewards that come from motherhood that only a mother could explain. Admits the feelings of never ending laundry piles, dirty dishes, meals, and cleaning there are times that these precious children simply melt my heart. Watching Rachael run into the other room to tell Josh about her peeing in the potty and then seeing the joy on his face and the excitement and accomplishment they share together warms my heart. It's such a memorable experience watching my children find joy in each others success.

Times that I am so exhausted from a long and tiring day I simply lie down on the couch to gain some more energy. They both come crawling up snuggling in to me giving me warm hugs while telling methey love me. It's not long before I gain that energy back through their love.

I could go on forever; their laughter, smiles, even times I see myself in their actions (good and bad) reminds me how much they look up to me and how much I really do influence their lives.

It reminds me that I need to not only continue to better myself but try harder to teach them how to become good people.

Do the best you can through these years, but whatever else you do, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones.

-Jeffrey R. Holland-

Presidents Day Weekend - St. George

We enjoyed a nice weekend down in southern Utah over President's Day. We left Thursday afternoon and came home Monday. It was so relaxing.

It did manage to rain and even snow a bit nearly the whole time we were down there but we still enjoyed every minute. The best day weather wise was probably Friday. That day we spent at Zions National Park. It was a little chilly but so gorgeous. I captured some neat shots that I had blown up for my dad on his birthday. They turned out really sweet...

We took a smaller hike with the kids but was surprised how near the end of the trail it was icy and at the bottom of a couple waterfalls was a large ice mountain. I enjoyed helping Josh collect acorns as we walked and we saw a few of natures animals including squirrels, a wild turkey and some deer. Josh tried so desperately to find another squirrel to give the acorns too but couldn't. After our hike we enjoyed some delicious apples and crackers in the back of my dad's truck. 

A fun family outing i'm sure we will be doing again soon.

We drove through some crazy tunnels with lookouts over some creepy steep drops and I found the moss on some of the rocks kinda fascinating.  Aaron became obsessed with Angel's Landing but I told him he could only do that once i'm dead. If you don't know what Angel's Landing is look it up, it's crazy! If you look hard enough at the biggest picture below you can see 3 climbers on a very large and steep part of the mountain, it was insane to watch them.

The rest of the trip we spent most the time visiting family. We stayed with my cousin and her wonderful family. Josh and McKade say they are best friends and act like it. There was not one fall out and as we left Monday they both had tears in their eyes. One thing we couldn't keep them out of was the rain, we would be ready to go out somewhere and by the time we all made it to the car they were both soaked. Quite cute really.

Saturday evening was spent with family eating pizza and some delicious desserts while 6 kids 5 years and under ran around playing.  There was also some girl time where we painted toenails (Rachael loved that, her feet are pictured above), and did a bit of shopping :) My cousin Megan was awesome enough to paint my toenails as well and she made them look so cute.

Aaron enjoyed playing tennis with my dad and the kids played around at the park.

On our way home I couldn't help snap a picture out of the window of the car at the beauty and contrast of the mountains. The white snow covered mountains against the red rock and green cacti was breath taking. 

Eyes

We have a nice variety of eye colors in our family and I wonder what color our new addition will end up having. Will he have brown like his brother Josh, grayish blue like his sister or be more greenish brown. Guess we'll see.

Check out the veins in Aaron's eye though, and his contact (kinda cool). He was pulling a face when I took it and had just gotten home from a long day at work. He wanted me to retake the picture but I thought it was cool. Aaron has very unique eyes as he has multiple colors as you can see. In his other eye (not shown) he has a specific patch of yellow and another brown spot.

The Last Week

This last week was great and even more exciting as we got a glimpse of spring.

My brother and his wife came down for dinner one night and Rachael had an accident. She was showing off and bit her tongue as she slammed her head onto the back of the couch frame. It was bad. I had blood all over my white shirt (of course) and the gashes in her tongue were huge. After cleaning up and calming her down I tried to get a picture. She was not all that cooperative but she did enjoy looking at herself in the mirror. If you look close enough you can see the two teeth marks. 

One day I had obviously wore the kids out as we were having 'quiet time' and I went to check on Josh and found him on his bed like in the picture above fast asleep. The cats love Josh (more particular our black cat Socks). As you can see in the picture he found his spot with Josh :)

We also had a craft day where we made loads of Valentines and other things. My room was a disaster afterwards with yarn everywhere but we had a lot of fun and the kids LOVED the pipe cleaner glasses. I think they wear them well don't you?

 Saturday we got a glimpse of spring. The morning was not all that great for me so Aaron took the kids out to run some errands. When they got back it was so nice outside we decided to go for a walk. That turned into a LONG 3 mile or longer walk. My pregnant body wasn't too happy with me afterwards but it was glorious. It took Josh a little bit to get used to his bike again and he ran right into the fence getting started. It was hilarious as we watched him but he was concentrating so hard. As soon as he ran into the fence he yelled "i'm ok" and hopped right back on his bike. I was rolling in laughter.

Seeing some birds in the trees and watching the kids play at the park brought feelings of spring. I'm excited!

That night we experienced one of the 3 earthquakes we had in 3 days. I was already up with Rachael as she was having a rough night. We were in her room when it happened and it scared me half to death. My heart was beating as fast as it would had I just ran a marathon. It was small (2.8 mag) but the sound, shaking and things crashing just threw me off as I was already in deep thought. Aaron jumped out of bed in excitement as he got to feel his first earthquake. He was bummed as we had missed the one the evening before.Crazy I know... Needless to say it took us all awhile to get back to sleep but luckily for Josh he slept right through it.

Valentines Day!

These are the cute valentines I helped Josh make for his party at school. We had a lot of fun making them and I thought they were the cutest things ever! I'm sure he won't approve when he get's older as he'll want more 'boyish' valentines but seriously... Aren't they cute? He even cut out all the heart heads by himself.

On Valentines Day Josh had his school valentine exchange and I made chocolate covered strawberries. After delivering some to Aaron at work he surprised me by coming home early and had arranged for a date night out. We went to an early movie and dinner - we had a lot of fun!