Living, Laughing, and Loving

2009-04-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hannah was blessed and Kathryn baptised on March 23. What a special day it was for our family! Abe performed both ordinances. He is a wonderful husband and father! We were also blessed to have both sets of grandparents here. It is so wonderful to see our family grow and so exciting to watch as Kathryn made the decision to get baptized and follow the example of Christ! She is a sweet girl and a wonderful example to our family.

Welcome to Our Family

2009-03-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

Hannah will be one week old this evening. Her official due date was March 12, although the ultrasound put the due date closer to the 7th of March. Last Sunday started as any regular Sunday. I was definitely not expecting to have a baby that day. Abe got up early and left for his Stake Meetings. The kids and I got up, got ready, went to Church from 9:30-12:30, (I'm serving in the nursery) and were late getting out of Church.
Anyway, we got home about 1:30 and I put in a couple of frozen lasagnas, we were expecting 4 missionaries at 4:00--at about 1:55 I felt a contraction that was strong enough that I looked at the clock and made a mental note of the time. At 2:15 I felt another, and then at 2:35. At this point I was a little concerned, but not extremely because on Thursday I had only been dialated to a 2 and figured it could take quite a while to get fully dialated and the contractions would probably stop. However, I was concerned enough that I went upstairs into the nursery, locked the door, sat in the recliner, and tried to relax.
Abe called a little after 3:00 and said he was on his way home. I told him that I had been having some contractions and I thought we might have a baby tonight. He called his mom and told her to be on stand by--I had talked to her just about an hour earlier and said that I didn't think the baby would come until the end of the week. Abe got home a little after 3:30 and could tell the baby was coming and called his mom and told her to come on over. We, actually Abe, got the rest of the dinner ready for the missionaries and the first set of Elders got here at 4:00, the second set called and said they were running late but were on their way, we sat down to eat at 4:30. Abe told the missionaries we had to eat fast because we might be having a baby shortly. I excused myself from the table and again, tried to relax and finished packing my hospital bag--it was beginning to seem more real at this point. About 4:45 I called Sister Patty Nash (she lives close, is a good friend, and my visiting teacher) and told her that I thought we might be having a baby and asked if she could come over and watch the kids until Louise got here. We told the missionaries we had to pass on the message and at 5:00 the missionaries were walking out of the door as Sister Nash was walking in.
We told the kids we thought we were going to have a baby and Abe gave me a blessing. I knew we were getting close, but I had no idea how close we actually were. We got to the hospital about 5:30.
We went up to the maternity admissions and as the lady was asking me all of these insurance, medical history questions, I looked down and saw blood on me. I realized that my water (or something) had broken (looking back, I think it happened at home, but I had not really realized it) and I was really worried and knew the baby was coming. I told the lady to keep my card and license and we would finish this later, but now we were having a baby and had to go.
Abe wheeled me down to the nurses station and they ask if they could help. I said, "Yes, this is baby number five, I have a history of fast labors and this baby is coming.” A wonderful nurse, hopped up almost running and got us into the first room she found. She just had me take off my pants and checked me I was dialated between and 8-9, my membranes had ruptured, and it was clear the baby was coming. We had several nurses setting up the room, hooking up IV's, asking medical history questions, taking blood, and getting things ready. Dr. Phillips showed up about 6:00 and after a couple of big pushes Hannah was born at 6:07 p.m. on March 1, 2009. She weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces and was 19 inches long with lots of dark hair.
We called and told the kids that they had a new baby sister and they were all so excited. Louise got them dressed and brought them to the hospital. We are blessed beyond measure to have Hannah here and healthy and part of our family! We love you, Hannah Lynn!

Quick update

2009-01-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

So I've accepted the fact that I'm not going to have a great up-to-date blog, I have a hard time doing anything that requires constant updating/monitoring. I perfer projects that I can just finish--although I must admit, I haven't finished many projects in the last several years either. However, I did make this photobook on Shutterfly and am quite proud of myself for completing it. I thought I'd post it then it was like killing two birds with one stone.

Life is going great for us right now. Abe started a new job a few weeks ago. We are still here in Miami, but he is now at the Baker McKenzie law firm. We have about 7 weeks left of our pregnancy and then we should be welcoming a new baby girl into our family. We are very excited! Life continues to be an adventure daily.

Shared photo book from Julie:

2009-01-25T16:33:00.001-08:00

View Project at Shutterfly

Halloween Is Coming

2008-10-23T17:28:00.001-07:00

We are so excited that halloween is coming! I took these pictures before we went to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party at Disney World. I thought they turned out pretty cute and figured there was a great chance that these might be the best pictures we get. I was stalling cleaning my house and thought I'd go on and post them. Enjoy! Happy Halloween to all!

The Great Cake Escape

2008-10-23T16:30:00.000-07:00

So the girls (Kathryn and Emily) decided to enter a cake decorating contest at school for their Hoe Down. They literally spent hours working on their beautiful cakes. They did a fantastic job and had a great time. We all learned a lot about cake decorating--no matter how much red food coloring you use you will still have hot pink icing, shredded wheat cereal can come in useful and when you’ve been eating candy for a couple of hours it tastes pretty good, 6 and 7 year olds can make great creative cakes all by themsleves. I successfully got both cakes (and all four kids) to school in perfect form (the cakes net the kids). The girls were excited, the hoe down was fun, and just as we were leaving we learned this year they had given the cakes away as prizes for the cake walk. Great idea in theory, however, we had not worked on these cakes for hours for someone else to take home. I believe if we had known that was the plan up front, we would have not been surprised and handled the situation differently. As soon as I realized what was going on I thought very rationally and decided just to pick up and cakes and leave--as if we didn’t really know the plan. In all honesty, we didn’t and I didn’t want to find out any more information. As I went to pick up Kathryn’s cake, a little girl was standing there with the number that matches Kathryn’s cake and she was very excited that she had just won it! I about died and tried to explain that there was a problem. The child’s mom was insistent that her child had won the cake at the cake walk and we could go home and make another one. I controlled myself and didn’t tell her to go home and make her own cake, but was not about ready to give up Kathryn’s cake--Kathryn was in a panic with her eyes full of tears. I couldn’t leave the cake, but I had to do something. I sent Emily to go out and get Abe. I told Abe I had to go figure something out and not to let ANYONE take Kathryn’s cake. He agreed and I talked to the mom and we decided to see if they could trade out our cake for another. I turned around and Kathryn’s cake was gone! I about died and then I saw Kathryn and asked her where her cake was. She said, “Daddy just took it out the back door!!!” I about died again and at this point all rational thinking was gone-- what would I say when the Mom came back, what do I do about Emily’s cake (which luckily had not yet been claimed, but would be any moment), and how do I think with all four of my kids, stressed, in a room with mass chaos reining. I believe I did what any self-respecting mother would do--I grabbed Emily’s cake (told the girls to grab Brandon by the hand) and we sped out the back door as well.
As I was running through the dark rain, with the high-jacked cake, and all four kids, I saw Abe coming down the road with the van, he pulled over and we all hopped in. We had saved the cakes! However, my consciences let me know that this was not setting a good example and I better resolve things inside for who knew the rumors that would fly about the member of the Stake Presidency who stole a cake at the elementary school fundraiser. Plus, I would have to face these people again at some point. I got some money and went back in. The mother was in there (correctly assuming we had escaped with the cake through the back door when she wasn't looking) and they had arranged for the child to take a different cake, I spoke with the PTA president who was trying to sort through this chaos reagarding our other "stolen" cake and told her we just learned that the cakes were being given away and my daughter was in the car and was not giving her cake up. I gave her $10 and told her to give it to the kid that ended up without a cake and they could go buy themselves some cupcakes. I felt better and we all returned home, happily with our cakes.

Kathryn's Barnyard Cake

2008-10-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

Weekend Getaway

2008-09-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

There are some great benefits of living in Miami. One of such is that I can pick up Abe at work Friday afternoon, we can cruise down to the Bahamas for the weekend, and he can be back at work before 8:30 Monday morning. Abe had a business meeting in Panama on Friday, I was going to fly down Friday night and spend the weekend there with him. The meeting ended not going through, but we already had babysitting arranged and church asignments cancelled, so we decided to take the opportunity and jump on a cruise for the weekend. We had a fantastic time on Sunday we were docked in Nassau. We spend the morning visiting the Atlantis Resort and then were browsing in the Straw Market when were thrilled to run into our friends Mark and Jessica Martinez. They were also taking advantage of a weekend cruise and we spent a couple hours visiting with them--all four of us went and toured Fort Charlotte. We ended our evening eating dinner and watching the sunset as we sailed from Nassau. It was a great day.

Sunday was spent at the "private island" of Norwegian Cruise Line. We had a great time exploring the island and snorkling. We saw lots of beautiful, colorful fish, as well as a few eels, a lobster, and a sting ray. We enjoyed relaxing and just being together. Again we finished our evening sailing away whatching the sunset and we ate our dinner.

Monday morning we packed up and Abe was back at work by 8:30. We had a great time and are very grateful for Abe's parents who were willing to watch the kids for the weekend. We really appreciated the time to ourselves!

Brandon's First Day of Nursery

2008-08-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

Sunday Brandon was 18 months and got to go to the nursery at Church for the first time.

I thought he looked really cute. Right before we left Emily asked me, "Mom, do you think that looks like Church clothes?" Obviously, she did not.

First Day of School

2008-08-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of school for the girls. It was supposed to me on Monday, but because of Tropical Storm Fay the first two days were cancelled the girls were all really excited. Kathryn started second grade, Emily first, and Lauren is in the Koala class at Preschool.

4th of July

2008-07-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we went to Disney World and the kids had a great time. The ride of choice for everyone was Splash Mountain where the only person who got wet was Dad. Brandon's favorit ride was the Tea Cups where he screamed each time we had to get off. We had dinner at a restaurant by It's a Small World where we ate and watched people get on the ride. Kathryn and Emily spent an hour waiving and eating. We never would have guessed that we would leave the park at 11:30 pm only after riding Flying dumbo at 11:00 pm. We had a great time.

On Thursday we went to Amelia Island where we played in the sand and pool and watched the fire works for the 4th. We sat about a 100 yards from the fireworks, but we sat down wind, so all the smoke was blowing in our faces. In addition, the wind was blowing the fireworks at us. Throughout the night, we had pieces of fireworks hitting us, and live (i.e., flying fire) landing all around us. One live ember actually fell into Emily shoe right in front of Brandon and Dad.

Emily and Kathryn can now swim the entir length of the pool. We are sure getting to be a mature family

Kathryn and Emily's Ballet Recital

2008-06-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

Kathryn and Emily participated in thier first ballet recital on Saturday. They were so excited and looked so beautiful! Grandma Louise came over to watch and Grandma Pam bought them each a bouquet of roses. Thanks grandmas. It's hard to say what was most exciting--the costumes, make-up, or actual dance. It was a great experience for all. The girls did great for a sold out crowd. It was quite the recital lasting about 4 hours. The girls were backstage waiting in a room with all the other "young ballerinas" for the majority of that time. It was a long afternoon, but well worth it.

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

13 Things We Love About Dad!

We love going to the zoo with Dad.
We love going to Disney World with Dad.
We love going to the Everglades with Dad.
We love Daddy Daughter dates!
We love dad laying by us at night.
We loves playing games with Daddy.
I love you to babysitus when mom is gone.
I love when Dad lets me go driving in his car.
I love going on bike rides with Dad.
I love dad because he helps me.
I like when daddy fixes my bed.
I like when he gets me presents.
I love when you come home and are so happy to see us and we are so happy to see you to!

Julie's 30th Birthday!

2008-05-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm 30 and have 4 kids! I must be getting old! I had a swell birthday. The girls each gave me $2.46 from their own piggy bank--2 $1 bills, a quarter, dime, nickel, and penny. They told be that was over 200 (cents, dollars, it's all the same at that age) and I could buy anything I wanted. I am going to buy a bike--Abe added some money of his own money as well.
I had a great birthday. It may not sound exciting, but we put up a shelf in the play room closet so the kids can now reach their games-- without all of the games falling down. I have been wanting to do that for quite some time now. We took some Pizza Hut pizza to the beach and had a picnic. That is my new favorite activity. I bet we've done it 4-5 times in the last couple months. then we went on a little hike by the beach through the mangroves. We found these "ancient ruins." Abe and I thought they were cool--the girls did NOT want to explore them. It was fun nonetheless. The kids (with Abe's assistance) made me an awesome birthday cake with green grass, a yellow sun, some pretty flowers, and lots of sprinkes. If it would have been at the store I would have paid a lot of money for it. I feel so blessed to have such a great family. They made my birthday very happy! I would like to add a video of the family singing happy birthday, but I can't figure out how to download it from my camera--maybe another day!

Julie's Birthday

2008-05-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

Today is Julie's birthday, she is 30. We went to the store, but they were closed. So we decided to make a blog so she has one more thing to keep up with.