She finally made it! After being ten days late (she was due June 6th) we went in to the hospital on Tuesday to be induced. When we got there around 10 am, I was at a three plus and 70%. I was also having some contractions but they were pretty small. They got me all settled and then hooked me up to the pitocin and we started the big wait. Around twelve thirty the contractions were getting pretty strong andwhen my doctor checked me I was already to a five plus and told me I could get the epidural anytime. The anesthesiologist came in around one and hooked me up. Unfortunately about ten minutes after he left I started feeling a little contraction pain in my left side so they had me lay on my left side to see if the medicine would spread. This had the opposite effect and just made the pain worse and spread to the middle. The guy came back in and gave me a little more medicine and checked to make sure everything was working right. He left and said he would be back in about 15 minutes. When the nurse came in five minutes later the pain was so bad it was like I didn’t even have an epidural. My doctor checked me and I was over a nine which meant it would have been too late for a new epidural or any medication to take effect so she said we might as well just get the baby out. Obviously I was freaking out because this was not at all what I had planned. Fortunately I had Jake there to squeeze his hand off with my death grip and the nurses were great. It only took a couple contractions to push her out and she was born at 3:11pm. My doctor said everything went great especially considering I didn’t have any pain medication when I was completely expecting to. She thinks if I hadn’t been induced on Tuesday I probably would have gone anyway on Wednesday or Thursday. We left the hospital around ten the next morning and everything has been going pretty well.

 This is about 15-20 mintes after she was born, so obviously I am not looking the greatest…      Ethan watching the nurse give her the first bath     I think this is Jake’s favorite picture, he just loves those chubby cheeks.

       Getting ready to leave the hospital.    Holding Olivia for the first time not long after she was born.

My mom has been here since we left the hospital and it has been great to not have to worry about any of the meals, or cleaning, etc. It also means Ethan has still been getting some attention which is definitely a good thing. He seems to really like Olivia and he always wants to help. He throws the dirty diapers out, everytime I feed her he wants to help (not much he can do there), and he always wants to hold her. Usually it is only for a minute or two but he always gives her kisses when he’s done. Yesterday he told me that she is beautiful, but that he doesn’t really like it when she cries. It is definitely strange having two after just one for so long, but then it was weird to have one after just Jake and I for so long. We will have to see how things are going to change once my mom leaves, but we are all excited and glad that Olivia finally decided to make her entrance!

    

Already sticking her tongue out for pictures!

    

This last picture is probably my favorite (so far). I was getting Ethan down for a nap and ended up having to feed Olivia at the same time. While I was feeding her he curled up on my other side and fell sound asleep. When she got done eating I wrapped her in the blanket and laid her on the bed for a second. Ethan lifted his arm up, put it around her, rubbed her belly a couple times and went right back out. I’m not sure if he was actually awake or just doing it in his sleep but it was so cute I just had to get a picture.

  I was finishing packing up all our bags for the hospital like books, toys, and the cameras when I realized I probably had videos on there that were taking up a lot of space and should be put on the computer. And since little Miss Diva has decided to delay her entrance into the world, here are a few videos- starring Ethan of course- for your viewing pleasure.

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This one is from pool time on my birthday. And yes he really is that skinny, but I promise I do feed him! All the time! In fact, he is actually a really good eater, he just never stops moving.

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Here is Ethan and Jake spreading fertilizer on the garden plot. They drove out to a farm right ouside of town to pick it up and Ethan thought it was so cool to get that close to the cows. For days afterwards he kept telling us that the fertilizer was manure and that manure was made out of cows pee and poops and he knew because he watched them. Unfortunately this conversation usually came up while we were eating dinner (and he happened to look out the window and see the garden) which doesn’t really help your appetite.

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Part of the reason we built a large house was to give Ethan room to run around in while I work. He definitely takes full advantage of the space by running laps around the kitchen, dining room, computer room areas with his trucks and motorcycles. Here he is running with his “motorcycle” while wearing his “helmet” in case he crashes, which he usually does on purpose. If you notice on the second time past me he is intentionally avoiding looking at me so I won’t take his picture.

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This last one is actually a little old (last November, I think) but for some reason it was still on the camera.  I guess this is what you get when you are married to a band director and go to a lot of parades just to see the bands marching. I think Ethan might march better than the majority of the kids in Jake’s high school and middle school bands!

I decided that since someone new is (most likely) about to become the subject of the majority of our postings, I would do this one just about Ethan. So here are some random things from the last month or so that I found as I was downloading everything off my cameras.

      

I have been trying to get in some extra hours of work right now because I know I won’t be getting much done once Baby Olivia gets here. This leaves Ethan to play on his own quite a bit and he tends to get a little bored/lonely. One morning he told me he wanted to eat Fruit Loops for breakfast but just out of a bowl with no milk. This gave me the great idea to keep him busy for a little while. He sat at his little table next to my desk for at least an hour stringing his necklace. He was very concentrated while trying to get the string through the little holes and needed very little assistance from me. He was so proud of his work that he actually wanted me to take a picture of him! Then when he realized he could eat the Fruit Loops right off the necklace he thought it was so cool that we had to drive over to the high school and show Jake.

Jake loves to garden, so as soon as is started warming up enough to plant, he started planning. He and Ethan went and picked up some manure from a farmer in our ward then brought it back to spread all over. A little stinky as you can imagine but Ethan loved it. They are out there together almost every day checking on all the plants and every morning after breakfast Ethan has to go outside and check on his pumpkins. He is actually a pretty good helper for Jake because he has learned just how much water to put on the plants and if he doesn’t know he will stop and ask if that is enough. I haven’t been out there helping at all so when I was outside with Ethan the other day we walked around the whole garden and he told me what every single plant was and showed me which ones were already coming up and which ones were going to take a long time. It has been great for me because it gives me a break, and lets Jake and Ethan spend a lot of time together doing something they both seem to enjoy.

One of the reasons Ethan likes gardening so much is that it means he gets to be outside. This little boy would live outside all day every day if I would let him. Lucky for me he does not have pale skin so I don’t have to worry too much about him getting sunburned. Unfortunately for me he seems to completely covered in dirt especially if there is any water involved. This is the face of a boy who did not want to come inside even though he was filthy and exhausted. He had been helping in the garden and then stayed outside to play and I couldn’t get him to come in. I finally convinced him by telling him he could come in and take a bubble bath or he could go into time out. He chose the bath.

Ethan has been wanting to get his pool out every day since it started getting warm. The problem is that even though it had been pretty warm, it usually got pretty windy too. Well on my birthday it was supposed to be a beautifuly sunny, non-windy day so I decided it was time to pull it out. Obviously we don’t have any grass yet so I laid out an old tarp and we blew up the pool with the air compressor (which was great because it took like 10 seconds). The sun was out and shining bright so I lathered him in sunscreen and we stayed out there for almost two hours! After I decided that was probably enough sun for the day, he and I went out and got ice cream for lunch to celebrate my birthday.

    

These pictures are just from this morning. We are trying to get Ethan’s room done upstairs so that we can move all of his toys and clothes out of the room down here to make space for Olivia. The rooms are getting really close thanks to a lot of hard work by Jake and some help this weekend by Grandpa Steve. This morning Jake was finishing up the baseboards and casing so Ethan and I decided to go up and help out by puttying the nail holes.  He did a decent job filling up the holes, but of course I had to follow behind him and scrape off all the excess. Once the caulking and putty dry it will be time to spray the white on the baseboards, doors, and ceilings. Then when that is done we can do the colors, and the carpet should get done sometime this week too. So hopefully this weekend while my wonderful little sister will be here we can move everthing into the rooms so that people can have a place to sleep when they come visit! And hopefully this will all get done before someone decides to make her appearance!

This is just a short video that I had forgotten I even had. It is from our little flight with Grandpa Steve.

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Ethan has white stuff all over his hands because he was upstairs helping grandpa mud his bedroom. And if you can’t tell what he says, it is that he ”saw the swimming pools that stink” which would be what he called the sewer ponds over the hill behind our house.

These pictures are actually from about a month ago but I have been busy trying to get everything ready for the baby plus work a ton so that I can take it east once she gets here which means I haven’t really felt like blogging. That and the fact that lately once or twice a week Ethan decides he is “scared” and can’t sleep in his own bed. So either we end up taking him back to bed 2 or 3 times or he climbs in with us when we are both too tired to fight with him.  We have a king bed so you wouldn’t think it would be too hard for us to all fit but Ethan has to be snuggled up right next to someone in order to stay asleep. Unfotunately that someone is almost always me. By the time morning comes me and my big fat belly end up with maybe a foot of space right at the edge of the bed. And it’s not like I am sleeping all that great right now anyways!  Needless to say I seem to end up pretty tired these days. Therefore, I am using that as my excuse for not blogging as much, take it or leave it.

I think I mentioned before that Grandpa Steve flew down one Saturday to help us get some stuff done on the upstairs bedrooms. Well Ethan loves planes and when it came time for them to leave he was so excited to see the plane and he really wanted a ride. Luckily they had a little time before they had to go so Grandpa Steve was able to take us up in the plane and fly over Panaca a little. The picture above is of Jake and his dad. It has been awhile since Jake flew and had to be reminded of how to work everything. Luckily his dad is very experienced so we didn’t actually have to have Jake fly the plane.

This was a little after takeoff and Ethan was so excited that he actually turned to me and wanted me to take his picture. Considering how camera shy he has been lately this was amazing. Obviously he was enjoying himself (and he has a little chocolate doughnut on his face from lunch).

This is the view of Panaca. Honestly. That is almost all of Panaca. So when other people say they live in small towns it just makes me laugh. If you can see the “stinky pools” (sewer ponds) near the top of the picture, our house is a little below the one that is off to the left by itself. It is the creamy colored one with a brown roof and no grass or trees nearby. Thanks for the ride Grandpa Steve! Ethan is still talking about it!