Makai's Birthday

Happy Birthday Makai. My sweet boy turned 8 on January 18th. We havn't had the time or resources to do big parties for our kids the last several years but the wonderful thing is my kids don't care. Their birthdays are instead all about them and our family. This year Makai wanted to go bowling for his birthday. We found a brand new refurbished bowling alley. It was amazing because it was redone after the no smoking law so it smelled great, it was sooo clean, and the people there were very nice. We had a blast. It was a great idea on Makai's part. The next thing we have to look forward to is his baptism.


Makai and Chace watching the cool movies that play after you bowl.

Daddy winding up!!!!

Welcome Brighton

Wow. I have a birth story to tell. So it all started with my Dr appointment on Monday November 30th. I was told if I had not gone into labor by then on my own that we would schedule an induction at my appointment. I have been induced with all of my babies so it was no surprise that come my Dr appointment I had not gone into labor. We scheduled the induction for Friday morning December 4th. I was so excited when on Thursday evening around 5 pm I got a call that the hospital was not going to be able to induce me Friday morning because they were too busy already. I was crushed but I assummed that I would get in later that afternoon. I waited and waited for a call and when none came I called them and they said they were still too busy and it was not going to happen that day. So of course I was dissappointed but I figured what is 1 more day. So I called first thing Saturday morning. Nope they were still too busy. To make a long story short after many, many tears and not understanding why I finally got the call late Saturday night to come in at 8 pm. I decided that I wanted a blessing before I went in because I was so emotionally upset about all the waiting I had done. This is the part where I let everyone know how much I truely know that our priesthood blessing do directly come from God to us..This is why. In my blessing I was told that Imay not understand the reason for things that happen but that God knows and to know that he is watching over me. The blessing also said specifically that there would be procedures that needed to be done that I would not understand why at the time but that I would be blessed with nurses and doctors who knew what they were doing and to trust that everything would be fine and that the lord would be watching over me.
So now that you heard what was said you could understand that I was baffled by the blessing. I said this is my 4th rodeo I know what I am doing at this point, so I shrugged the blessing off and was comforted that I was being watched over.
Ok so we get to the hospital..I get hooked up to the iv meds, I get my epidural ( which he nicked a nerve again=( Ouch!) , my bloodpressure is great ( it has been bad in the past) and I am well on my way to having my baby boy. The nurse came in around 2 am to do a routine check and then it happened......
She said we have a problem but stayed very calm so I though she was going to tell me I was at 10 already and ready to push...then she started to call for the nurse which I thought was funny..Then when the charge nurse did not come fast enough she yelled to my mom to go pull the emergency cord in the bathroom.That is when I knew something was really wrong. Oh by the way did I mention her hand was still inside me.. Next thing I know 4 nurses come running in and My nurse yells Prolapse Cord..and then I hear 1 nurse yell Oh S***! and another yell Get Dr Nicdao and prep the OR STAT. I was like a deer in the headlights.. I still did not know what was going on and no one had time to tellm e. They were diconecting me from stuff, throwing my iv drip on top of me and preparing to move me to the OR. My nurse hopped onto my bed..mind you with her hand still inside me, with me not understanding why still. At this point I am freaking out and crying. From that point it all happened so fast. They had me in the OR, prepped and cut open and Brighton out in a matter of less than 15 minutes. There was not time for Cr to come with me so he and my mom were left in the room praying that everything would be ok. It was the scariest thing I have ever gone through. It wasn't until 40 minutes later when I was sewn back up that the Doctor was able to explain what happened and what the nurse was doing.
The explanation was that he had a prolapse cord so when the nurse checked me the cord was coming out before the baby. This is extremely dangerous because the pressure of the baby coming down cuts of his blood and oxygen supply and if not relieved immediately he could die. Thus the reason for the emergency C-section. I found out later that my nurse, her 20 years experience and fast thinking saved Brighton's life. She had Brighton's cord between her fingers and was pushing his head up off the cord to keep him from putting pressure on it. I was numb from the waist down but I was told she never took her hand out until Brighton was literally out. She kept him alive and saved his life. Now I understood my blessing and the reason for the delay of labor. My nurse had 1 patient the night I came in ...ME. I had her undivided attention and the attention of the nursing staff. If I had gone in on Friday they may have been too busy to catch my condition..also I got the 1 nurse on the staff with 20 years experience and the intelligence to know exactly what to do to keep my baby safe. I was truely watched over and blessed and although just as the blessing said I did not understand the purpose of events then, I do now. I have a beautiful baby boy and a huge testimony of priesthood blessings.

I don't have a lot of pictures of the birth etc. because it was a surprise but here is what I do have.

This is about an hour after he was born. I am still in recovery and in a lot of pain. I have never been through something so painful. I will take vaginal delivery over c section any day!!I also look very drugged because I am very drugged=)








This is my hospital room. The cool thing about this hospital is all the rooms are private room and you labor, deliver and post pardum all in the same room. You don't have to change rooms after you deliver. Each room also has a private full bathroom with a tub to labor in if you want.



My sweet boy only hours old=)



Proud Daddy! My mom has the pictures of while they were waiting to hear where Cr and she are very nervous and worried about me. This is after when Daddy could stop worrying and be excited.



The cute going home outfit.




Time to go home=)










2 weeks old



4 weeks old..getting ready for church





6 weeks old..



7 weeks old

Our new Southeastern Guide Dog Pup=)

Meet TILLIE everyone. We are really looking forward to having her in our family.

Awesome Video

It's A ......

Well I am so sorry it has been way too long but my brother still has my camera cord so I can't upload photos and with summer I have been extremely busy. I did however want to update quickly on our new arrival due in December. For those of you who don't know I had dreams about this baby and and I swore it was going to be a girl..so was I right...NO..It is a BOY!!! It just goes to show that I have no mother's intuition. BABY BOY WISE.. Due December 4th 2009. ultrasound pictures to follow.

Any suggestions on boy names?

Creativity Tag!

The first five people to respond to this post will receive something made by me. HOMEMADE! The item will be my choice made just for you!

Restrictions and Limitations:
1. I have complete creative freedom
2. What I create will be just for you
3. It will be done within the next 3 months
4. You have no clue what it will be. It may be personalized note cards. I might bake something. I might not think of anything until 3 months from now...

The catch?You must re-post this on your own blog and offer the same giveaway to 5 people who comment. The first 5 people to leave a comment telling me they are in, will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift from me! Be sure to post a picture of what you get!

Here's to creativity!

Backpacking the Florida Trail part 1

Ok so I know everyone knows how much we love being outside and camping etc. But did you know how crazy we were to try backpacking with 3 little kids? Well we are. This particular trip was to North Florida to the Osceola National Forest. We were going to trek along a portion of the Florida Trail for 3 days..2 nights. The whole reason for doing this is because we are taking a family trip up to the mountains in North Carolina in May. We are going to hike a portion of the Appalachian trail. It is the same trail that a few of you will remember from our Laurel High Adventure. Anyway so this trip is a practice trip to see how prepared we are.

We left very early in the morning because it was a 3 hour drive and we still had to hike in when we got there.
These are the kids in the van that morning.



Breakfast at DENNYS!!Yummy!



Right across the street from Denny's just happened to be a Gander store. That is a huge camping store similar to Bass Pro shops. Mom still needed a pair of Hiking boots so we decided to stop. Amazingly my mom actually found a pair she liked so she did not have to take her old stinky shoes on the trail..Lets just say dad made sure those old shoes hit the can before we left the parking lot.



Keeping busy on our drive.



Me and My love!!



When we got to the forest we had to stop at the rangers station and let them know where we were going to be. Inside the station they had several animals on display. The kids loved seeing the animals and touching them. The neatest was knowing we could possibly see these animals alive in the wild.









Near where we were going to be there was a historical train depot. This picture is of the front room/entrance of the depot.



This is a basket of cotton like what the slaves would work all day in the fields to retrieve.



The railroad like most southern historical sites has its grim past...This set of tracks was built mainly by slaves whose masters loaned them for a price to the railroad.



These were examples of money they had in the south and the North during the mid to late 1800's.











These are pictures of us getting all our gear on. The Orange shirts were required to hike in the forest so we did not get shot. It was hunting season!!It definitely made it easy to spot us on the trail.









Shaylyn and uncle Chris walking the trail hand in hand!!So cute!



After walking about a mile or so we came across a hikers refuge. It was a covered pavilion area. We were hoping to walk further before stopping but we wanted to take advantage of the shelter so we decided to go ahead and stop for lunch.



When we stopped about midway through our lunch some bad weather decided to come through so we just decided to stay. It was a good decision because a storm came through just after deciding to stay. We set up our hammocks and the kids tent right there under the cover of the pavilion. It was definitely convenient.











Ok so the best story of our whole trip was that my dad could not get his hammock under the pavilion. He decided to go ahead and use a couple of trees just beside the pavilion and put his tarp over him. About 45 minutes after going to bed.. in pitch black we here an earsplitting crash!! Of course we are all freaking out because it is black outside and we don't know what it was. I thought it had been thunder and that it had been right over us. As I turned my flashlight on and started looking around I noticed my dad's hammock had fallen to the ground. Daddy was fine so I was panning around when my mom screamed STOP...I stopped moving the flashlight and what did we see?........My dad actually broke the tree.. The huge bang was the tree splitting and hitting the covered roof of the pavilion. Talk about scary and funny at the same time.




We are packing up and getting our packs on , Ready to hit the trail again. We had heard even worse weather was on its way so we decided to leave early and head south to the Ocala National Forest.









BYE Osceola National Forest.



It was lunch time and since we were en route to a new location we decided to stop at TEXAS ROADHOUSE for lunch. Talk about scrumptious.Peanuts anyone?













When we reached the Ocala forest we decided to hike the 5 mile trail to a campground. If we could find a place to camp along the trail we would, if not we would hike the whole trail and just go ahead and drive home that evening. The trail was so narrow.( look at the pictures below) That there was no place to camp for the night so we just hiked our miles and we drove home late that night. I have to admit that after hiking that much I was happy to be in Air conditioning and a real bed. The trip overall was a great success though because we proved we could walk the miles that will be required of us in North Carolina. The best was that noone quit or complained and Shaylyn was amazing..That 3 and a half year old trekked with the best of us that day. She was amazing and loved being with the family. I love introducing her to nature and the outdoors at such a young age. I hope all the kids grow to love nature and desire to protect it.