Carl and my brother in-law Steve went down to California for training. Carl is going to be working with the search and rescue in Salt Lake City.

This is Carl and Ryan at the dog trials. Carl is hoping to train dobermans.

So Carl and I had this idea, that since Joshua was growing out of all his clothes so fast, we would just buy him one size too big. As you can see, it is working out only partially well, because all his legs and arms are too long. He doesn't mind it too much though, it just gives him extra material to try and eat.

Carl, Darrel, Scott, My dad, Steve, Tyson and Joseph all went paint balling over Thanksgiving break. They had a blast, and have the large, red, welts to prove it.

Joshua is growing like a weed. We just bought him a new car seat, because he grew out of his infant seat. We decided this time to get a car seat that fits up to 100 pounds....he should be there in about a month (LOL).

I'm Back

It's been a crazy year. Joshua is growing like a week. He is now in size 24 month clothes, and weighs 20 pounds 2 ounces. He is loooong too! When I hold him, he reaches from my shoulder all the way to my waiste. He rolled over earlier this week, and has taken to rolling all around the room.

Carl is loving his new job. He delivers ice cream (YUMMY) for Farr's icecream. It is neat because he gets to travel all over Utah. In fact, small world, he ran into Kathy and Steve and had lunch with them down in Payson.

Carl and I are house hunting right now (crosses fingers) and hoping to find something soon. We are tired of renting, and are ready to settle down in Tooele (for a while at least).

I am enjoying my new job at Excelsior Academy. I miss George Washington Academy, and all my friends down there, but am thoroughly enjoying my new adventures up here.

So for craziness, Carl and I have decided to take up a hobby. We are going to train a doberman to help with search and rescue. My brother inlaw Steve Parsons, is heading up a team, and we have decided it would be a great activity for us to do together. Carl has had a little (one day) expirience, where Steve's dogs attacked him and he was able to do some training with them (see pics below), and he loved it. We are really excited to see how this goes.

I am so excited for Joshua's first Christmas. I am trying to think of ways to make it extra special. We want to start some traditions as a family. We aren't sure what exactly, but we plan on having a lot of fun.

Welcome Joshua!

Carl and I are both so excited to welcome Joshua into our family. He was born June 17, 2009 and weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces. I delivered him C-Section at 10:28 am. From the moment he was born all the nurses and staff were smitten with him, he is already quite the charmer. Everywhere we went we kept hearing, wow what a long baby. He is 22 inches long. Unfortunately, the excitement of coming into this world was too much for the little guy and he took a huge gulp of fluid on his way out. This sent him directly to the NICU. I barely got a glance of him (wish I had been wearing my glasses), before they rushed him away. Luckily, Carl was able to accompany the nurses and went with him to the NICU. I was left alone to recover. Other than Joshua having respiratory problems, both him and I came out of the surgery doing pretty ok.

I wasn't able to see Joshua for about six hours after he was born. He was really struggling and they had to keep him under careful watch in the NICU. I camped out in my room with Carl, my mother in-law and my mom. I should have slept, but couldn't help but stay awake in anticipation for finally getting to see my little boy.

Finally, at about 5 oclock I was able to go see Joshua and it was sooo sad. He had so many tubes and needles poking out of him. He was such a good boy, hardly complained at all. He would wimper a little, but for the most part he just layed still while they did all their tests.

One of the hardest things about having Joshua in the NICU was not being able to feed him. I tried pumping the first day, but it was very difficult with little result.

On day two I was able to visit Joshua more, and by about noon I tried feeding him. They were able to back off the oxygen he was recieving and remove a few of the tubes. He was still pretty sick though. He was able to eat a little, but the poor guy was so tired he would take a few sucks then tucker out and sleep. We tried twice that day, and on the third try I told them I just wanted to hold him and make him feel better. So I stayed for an hour and held Joshua while he slept.

That night I told the nurse, if at any time he acted fussy like he wanted to eat, they should call me down. At 1 oclock they did just that. I came down and was so happy to find a hungry little boy. He was able to nurse for a full half hour, and since then has done regular nursing.

After his one oclock nursing with me, Joshua started to get better. They slowly backed off more and more from the oxygen and by morning after two middle of the night feedings he was really starting to show improvement. I continued to nurse him and cuddle him every two hours up until 3 oclock when they declared him well and allowed us to bring him up to my hospital room.

Mom and son are doing so much better. We are so blessed to have daddy here to take care of us. Carl has been such a good nurse. We look foreward to the possiblility of going home tomorrow (Saturday). The bandages have been taken off and are looking good, and I am able to get up and walk around. Joshua is sleeping right now peacefully, and it looks like everything has turned out better than we could have hoped for.

The Baby is COMING...LATE!

So the baby isn't coming on Wednesday like planned. Evidently, he had another agenda. His lungs aren't developed and so the doctor has post-poned me one week. So now Joshua will be delivered on June 17th.

The Latest

So it has been really crazy as usual. I spent two weeks ago in and out of the hospital. It all started when I got an infection under my tongue totally out of the blue. I didn't think much of it, but went in to have it checked out. The doctor agreed that it was not a big deal, and that it would go away. Little did we both realize...that night I was so sick, I have never been so ill as long as I can remember. I was throwing up about every minute. This lasted about 7 hours. The next morning I was admitted to the hospital with dehydration. We never did figure out what caused me to be so sick.
So here I am in the hospital, barely able to sit up because of how weak I was. Luckily, after just 8 hours of IV's they said I was ready to go home. That night however, my chest started to hurt. By the next morning I was coughing and my chest was wheezy and strained. I figured I would be ok, that it was just because I'd been so tired....nope. That night I had to go once more to the emergency room, and there I found out I had bronchial pneumonia. It took me 7 days of medicine, but I finally recovered. I was out of school for one week recovering. The baby is fine, and I am doing much better.

It's a BOY!!!

We are very excited to be having a boy!