Baby News!

Well our so called "November baby" decided he just couldn't wait to join our family and wanted in on the Halloween fun!

I am happy to announce the birth of our cute little son, Tayevion!

Born on October 29th, 2008 3:35am wieghing in at 7 lbs 11 ounces (good thing he was 10 days early huh?!)

He is so healthy and snuggly and sweet as can be! We are loving having him in our family.

The proud mama and papa:

Here's how it all played out:

I had been having tons of contractions all of Sunday and Monday, but I went to the Dr. on Tuesday morning and she said that although I was almost at a 3, I was not effaced and the baby wasn't fully in position yet. She said "I think you will be fine until after Halloween". So I left reassured that things were going to go as planned. Yeah right. So that night I went to this Halloween thing with my kids and the whole time I kept having these really hard contractions. Some were to the point that I had to actually stop what I was doing, and concentrate. It was really wierd and not fun, especially because I kept thinking that this was more false labor and I was going to have to go through this every night for a week. Little did I know I was in early labor. So I left that night and went home and of course of all the luck I couldn't get a hold of Jonas to tell him I wasn't doing good. He was working late. Finally I was able to talk to him and he rushed home. We called some family to tell them what was going on just in case, and made arrangements to take the kids to my wonderful friend Chandelle, just in case. I kept thinking things were going to slow down and go away but they didn't and I had a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that "this was it", I was really in labor!

Well to make a long story short, I was in pretty active labor because by the time we went to the hospital at 1am I was at 7cm and he was born 2 1/2 hours later! Those two and a half hours felt like an eternity, by the way. But overall it was a very good experience, I didn't even have to have an IV, no catheter (which to me is like the worst part ever), and not even any tearing. But best of all I have a wonderful, alert and content little boy as a result. So worth all the effort!

Recovery has been great and I enjoyed the time at the hospital where everyone is really to wait on you hand and foot. Now I am home and reality hasn't yet hit. Soon I am sure. I have 3 kids!

Here's a few more fun pictures:

The kids were thrilled of course and it was so cool to see the look especially on Shayden's face because you could just see all these emotions in his eyes after waiting for so long for this to happen. And oh it was so funny, the first thing that Jasmine said to me was "Mom, you tricked me." And completly surprised I said "How did I trick you?" and she said "You told me the baby was going to be born after Halloween!" I gasped and said "I did trick you!" Of course then I explained how I didn't mean to and that baby's sometimes come when you don't expect them to, but it was so funny because so many months ago I needed her to have a reference point, so that she would stop asking me if the baby was going to come that day!

Another cool thing is that he was born on my brother's birthday! So that will be a cool bond that they will get to share!

A few things before the baby was born...

Jasmine had her Halloween program for preschool. She knew the songs so well!
We didn't have her costume yet because it was at my sister's house so she was Snow White.

And on last Saturday we got to go fishing with some of our good friends the Skidmores. We hadn't seen them in a very long time and it was so fun to catch up. The kids had a blast!

Dance and Storytime

I have been taking Jasmine to storytime a local library with her friend Aspen which I have been watching on Tuesday mornings. They had a fun time.

Also, Jasmine has been taking this little dance class from this program that I recently discovered that is super cheap and awesome! It was kind of like a modern dance type thing. This one is over but as soon as I can wrap my head around taking her with a baby in tow, I will sign her up again, probably early next year. She has loved loved loved wearing her little leotards and strutting her stuff, as you can see.

Hooray for UEA!

And hooray for such warm weather in October! We went to Sugarhouse park for a minute and then to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth". It was better than I expected. The kids love cousin time and we just wish the rest of our cousins lived closer!

I love my job(s)!

On the verge of going on Maternity Leave, I had to write a tribute to my 2 wonderful jobs that allow me to work like 30 hours per week but still "feel" like a stay at home mom somehow.

You see my job with Jetblue Airways is awesome because I get to work from home. This means that I don't have to scrape the snow off my car, I can wake up literally 7 min before my shift starts, and I work in my pj's while I blog-without worrying about someone watching over my shoulder. But the best part about it is that it also allows me and my family to see places like this for absolutely free:

But there is not a lot of personal interaction at that job. That's when my Early Head Start job comes in. I get to go one day a week and work in an office with a bunch of fun and crazy gals. I have worked with a bunch of catty and gossipy women before, and I think it is a miracle that this group is not like that. We all get along so well! It is hard to get anything done when I go in because Thursday is like party day there. I also love this job because I get to keep up on my social work skills. Plus I get to go to tons of trainings on working with kids 0-3 which helps me keep up on my mom skills!

I can take my kids to the office sometimes (then I really can't get much done!):

I get to take them to fun places like this:

And I get to act like a kid again!
So this is the group of gals that decided to tell me we had a mandatory "Risk Management" meeting this week and when I showed up yelled "SURPRISE" and threw me the awesomest baby shower ever! They went all out and it was so much fun.

There were even cute little planes and "clouds" hanging from the ceiling.

Can you tell I was shocked by this hilarious picture?The airplane cake was awesome!We played silly and fun games and laughed a lot!

Especially this game where we fed each other baby food! It was so gross but so funny to see it all over each other's faces!It was so fun just to talk and laugh, much better than a "risk management" meeting. Thank you ladies for such a great night!!! It was very memorable!

It's Halloween Time!

Jasmine has been begging me to decorate for Halloween for some time now. She is totally at the age where she anticipates holidays big time.
She keeps saying "Halloween takes for a long time, huh mom?"
Last Saturday was the perfect day because we went to the pumpkin patch at Wheeler Farm with my work and got all wet and cold, so that night we stayed in and had a fun night of Halloween activities.
This is us on the hay ride at Wheeler Farm. Shay picked this enormous pumpkin, he wants to make it into a shark!

I love collecting costumes and so we had fun trying on different things.

Wigs are my favorite, I wish I had a wig closet with all of them on head mannequins! That would be so awesome.

Jasmine refused to wear a wig, surprise, surprise.

Nights like these are good for me because I always have this need to take my kids somewhere, but we had just as much fun hanging out at home, and saved on gas. Plus, then I read this post from my friend Janet and it totally resonated with me because I just want to savor all of these moments while my kids are so little. They grow up so fast, but you already know that!

I think some of the parents that I work with mistakenly think that the main job of a parent is to correct behavior, but I am learning more and more that it is really all about relationship building. Okay that is enough with the preaching.

One last Halloweeny thing: I got the idea for this cute Halloween wreath from my friend over at Spurling Sprite, (who got it from someone else I think). Mine is a little simpler than hers, I might have to add more webbing, but I still like it. It was super easy and cheap, two things that I love. I also love something cute and festive on the front door. Thanks Isela, for the idea!

Halloween is so much fun!