Mason James- Blessing Day

We blessed baby Mason a few weeks ago here in our ward in Danville. Gordon did a beautiful job and it was a really nice day. Uncle Troy, Vince, Jared Christensen, Jeff Myers and Bishop Stone stood in the circle with Gordon and Mason was a champ- no crying! We didn't get many pictures. Acutally we only took a few before church and just of me holding Mason. We are SO bad about taking pictures. Oh well. Here are the few that we have.

Where does she get this stuff?

Abby said to me the other day, "Mom, isn't Christmas the greatest. We get all these new toys and stuff and because Santa brings it you don't have to use any of your own money!"

She is a thinker, that one!

She is trying all kinds of tricks to get to stay up later. She just recently started the "I'm hungry!" routine at bedtime. Tonight she tried that, and when it failed she tried the "I'm scared!" routine. Being in a better mood than usual at bedtime, I indulged her momentarily by asking, "What are you scared of?" She hesitated briefly, probably shocked that I didn't immediately bark "Get in to bed" at her, and then, in the most pathetic voice you can imagine said, "What if a tiger breaks through my window and comes to get me?"

What!! Seriously? A tiger? She obviously wasn't prepared with a more believable "fear". But, she recovered quickly saying, "I keep having bad dreams that I don't have a family anymore." I looked at her and she continued, "because of a fire." Ugh!!! For those of you that don't know her well, she is miss drama queen extraordinaire with an incredible imagination. She used to be scared of fires, but that was a few years ago. But, she knows we took it seriously, so now she is digging it up in a vain attempt at a few more minutes at bedtime.

She's seven. She should know by now, bedtime is the one thing in this family that is absolutely non-negotiable. But you've got to give the girl credit. She keeps trying- almost every night!

She's a thinker and a persistent excuse creator! And hopefully she's asleep.

Oh how I love my boys!

Brotherly bonding. Are they not just the cutest things around? I think so.

One Burrito Baby - To Go, Please

I have a special talent. Swaddling babies is my special talent. I can even do it, "to go." It's probably not the safest, but I am not one to wake a soundly sleeping baby just because we need to go pick up kids from school. Besides, he's in there so tight, he's not going anywhere. And an added bonus is that he is much happier now that his naps are not being interrupted by the shuttle service we have going on here with three kids on different school schedules. (it's not as bad as it sounds thanks to a wonderful, amazing, marvelous thing called the BUS, but we still do preschool and kindergarten pick up.)

Happy napping everyone!

For Gordon

Gordon is out of town right now. He is in Texas, and apparently his client is having serious doubts about the fact that we have children. Gordon has no pictures with him, on his computer, in his wallet or anywhere else. Not only that, but he doesn't know how to access this blog, facebook or anywhere else that I have posted pictures of the baby. It's not that he couldn't figure it out, he just isn't interested. And the fact that he has no pictures with him is really due to the fact that we are horrible picture takers, not that he doesn't adore his kids (because he does.) So these pictures are for Gordon and his client, and anyone else who is interested. And hopefully the link that I email Gordon will work, otherwise these pics are just for you!

(below) Pre-baby pictures. Gordon and the kids making pizza. What a good dad!

(above) Amanda, Madi, Abby and Chase on the 4th of July. This is one of only two pictures that we took of me pregnant. I felt huge, and this picture does not really do justice to just how big I felt!

(above) Chase, Madi and Abby watching with great wonder at Mommy getting her blood pressure checked in the hospital. Baby Mason didn't hold a candle to the noisy automatic contraption velcroed tightly around Mommy's arm.

(below) I think Abby was pretty nervous to hold the baby. She has such a serious expression.

(above) Madi on the other hand was all smiles and very excited to be a new big sister.

(below) Chase wanted to hold the baby mostly because the girls were doing it. He was really more interested in getting drinks from the "refreshment room" in the hospital.

(below) Cute baby Mason sleeping peacefully.

(below) Those hospital binkys are huge and a little strange. You can see here the scratches Mason gave himself. It's amazing how long their fingernails are when they are born! What a cutie! It's been so fun having him here. We all just love him so much!

A New Baby

It was Friday, (July 17th), and I was determined. I had an appointment in the morning, my membranes were stripped, and I was off and walking in 100+ degree weather up in the hills of Walnut Creek. It was so hot. I came home got on the treadmill and walked for an hour. I walked up and down the stairs. I walked all around the house. I bent over a lot and picked stuff up off the floor (an activity sure to give me contractions). And by 7pm I was having irregular contractions every 10 minutes. Not really labor, but I was impatient and tired of being pregnant. We decided to take the kids to their Aunts house for the night and on the drive over I decided to call my doctor just to see what he would say about my irregular 10 minute contractions. Can I just say, I love my doctor! The answering service lady told me that he said to come on in to Labor and Delivery. I knew by the way she said it he was already at the hospital, and that I would be having the baby that night.

We went in and I actually was contracting every 4 minutes, but I could only feel every other one. My dr broke my water and started Pitocin and at 7:58am baby Mason was born. He was a little stuck and after 1.5 hrs of pushing he came into the world with a little help from a vacuum(sounds worse that it actually is.)

He weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 20.5 inches long. He has dark hair and looks nothing like Chase did as a newborn. He is so cute*** and we are all having so much fun with him.

*** Chase was also very cute as a newborn, just to clarify- they just look so different to me, but both very cute!

The Ever Shrinking World

First of all, no baby yet. I need to get some serious walking going on! Too bad is was 104 degrees today. We are going to try and walk around the Lafayette Resevoir tonight when it cools down a bit. Do you think if I have Gordon push our three kids in the triple jogger (which we are trying to get rid of by the way) that it will slow him down to my 9 month pregnant pace?

isn't it lovely? would you like to buy it, or do you know anyone who would?

So I just made a phone call to the hospital which struck me as really funny. My parents are in Africa serving a mission for our church. They have been there for about 20 months and have about 3.5 months to go, so they will miss being here for the birth of our baby. We have been able to communicate frequently with my parents using Skype and they love watching the antics of my crazy kids on the webcam. I was feeling bad that they were not going to be able to participate when our baby is born, then it struck me that we could just use skype on a laptop at the hospital (with the webcam appropriately directed at my head!) So today I downloaded Skype on my sister-in-law's laptop, located an old webcam we had, found the software and made sure everything was working. Then I realized we needed Internet access. I don't know why, but it struck me as so funny to call the hospital and ask if I could get wireless Internet access in my room when I come in to deliver my baby. And then, when I found out I could get Internet access, I just sat amazed for a moment that my parents in Africa could actually participate, in real time, in this amazing event in our life. Wow- how amazing. The world is getting so small. Don't you think?