The day Grant was born and BEYOND!

Friday:

Who would have known how today's' events would unfold? Definitely not Chris & I! We went in early Friday morning, to the Jordan Valley Hospital, to be induced. Grant was already over a week overdue. We had tried everything to help him along...from Ian William's fool proof secret salsa inducing sauce (Tuesday), to a bike ride out to the airport control tower (Thursday) among other activities. I was having contractions but nothing put me into labor.

(This is me...happy to be getting induced and excited for the baby.)

Once there I was still not progressing and the Dr. put me on petocin. (Really wasn't excited about that one.) After another few hours and thinking how great I was handling the contractions, I still had not dilated past a 2! They did an ultrasound only to find that the baby was breech. Well, this explained why nothing was happening. So things started to get "interesting." The next course of action was to try to turn him around in my belly...a very painful procedure. I got an epidural (another thing I was trying to see if I could avoid) and then they tried turning him. Even though I was certainly numb, it was the most painful thing ever. After three attempts, the Dr. stopped. The baby would not turn, he was just too big and there wasn't enough room to move and he didn't want to hurt the baby by forcing things.

Then things went even worse...the only option left was a cesarean. Talk about emotional overload! Chris & I tried so hard to keep things together, but we were struggling. Now I was facing major surgery. The most I have ever had "done" in a hospital; besides having 2 babies regularly, was 3 stitches
in my thumb about 5 years ago.

We had a couple hours until I was to have the surgery and Chris called a good friend from work to come and help give me a blessing. We are so grateful for the Priesthood. The comfort from that blessing was enough to help me calm down and think clearly as I asked the nurse what to expect. That in itself was a blessing as she had all her children by cesarean. I was also able to call my best friend Kayla & even though there wasn't enough time for her to get to the hospital to be there with me, talking with her was greatly calming.

When the time came to go in, Chris got all dressed in his little suit. The epidural wasn't working anymore and they had to give me a spinal tap. My body was reacting so weird to the various drugs in my system I was shaking uncontrollably! Chris found it amusing and was administering field sobriety tests on my eyes. Hilarious...definitely was not in any condition to drive - failed miserably!

The anaesthesiologist was the best ever. Everyone was really helpful and calming and the procedure went better than I could have hoped for. Chris, ever curious, asked if it was ok with me if he watched what they were doing on the other side of the curtain. Of course I was fine with it - I actually knew it was coming anyway. At 5:29 PM Grant Roscoe was born.

He weighed a hefty 8 pounds and 10.5 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long. As soon as he was born, he coughed and started to scream and BOY was it loud! The only hard thing was that I couldn't hold him yet until I was all stitched up.

Daddy got to hold him first.

Once we were both all cleaned up and finished, they wheeled me to my recovery room. Chris said that Kayla was there in the room waiting and I about burst into tears right there! Gosh, typing this is making me want to cry again. I am so blessed to have her as my friend. She knew how much I needed her and she did everything she could to be there for me. Thank you so much Kayla!

We were on the road to recovery.

So, you may be wondering where the girls were all this time. They were with Aunt Holly - our wonderful friend, who has been "adopted" as our family. She stayed with the girls the entire weekend and spoiled them like crazy! She brought them down to see us every day.

I think Christianna is started to be more excited about this whole boy business.

Grant's First Bath

Chris was there for it, he started out crying but soon calmed down with the warm water washing him.

The girls were happy to come and visit and meet their brother!

Uncle David came to visit as well...

...along with our soon-to-be Aunt Heather.

We also had the Blackburn family and a couple of my YW advisers and one of the Young Women visit. It was just wonderful to have them stop by!

Alright, in keeping with tradition, we put this outfit on Grant to take him home. This is the very same outfit that Chris came home in from the hospital as a baby. There was a boy & girl outfit that his parents would bring to the hospital each time. They only ever used the boy outfit so we used the girl one for Victoria & Christianna and now this one for Grant!

When we got home Monday evening (finally) the YW had decorated the garage and baby's room. They are such great girls!

After all was said and done, we were blessed to have another member in our family. It was well worth the wait for this little guy.

Christianna's Americanna Recital

What a fun evening! We all attended Christianna's Ballet Recital this evening. My Dad was even able to come up to see it. (We will excuse Mom, she was in NY enjoying a sister's weekend and celebrating Grandma's 80th birthday.)

Christianna was a horseshoe. She is the one on the far left side. Boy was she excited to get her costume! Shiny gold with black - totally awesome! (Even though it was a bit itchy for her.)

She did such a great job and didn't have to look to the sides too often to watch her teachers. She was so nervous that she would forget everything but she was wonderful!

Chris and I got her a lovely bouquet of flowers. Turns out I was on the wrong side of them to get a good picture...but her face says it all!

The family all together.

Aunt Holly was also able to join us.

Christianna with Grandpa.

Uncle David and Heather also came.

It meant so much to me to have everyone come and support her tonight.

After pictures, I went with Christianna to collect her things only to find that she was missing a shoe! Seriously? What the heck? We did find a random brown shoe that wasn't a match - so we figure that someone just threw on 2 shoes not knowing they didn't match and then left! CRAZY!! I am so hoping there is a lost and found when summer classes begin - they were a stinking cute pair of brown shoes.

(I will be adding a video of her performance once I can figure out how to edit it to only her dance.)

Spring Fling MADNESS!

So our Young Women's Spring Fling is finally done! There was so much stress involved with getting this activity off the ground and I am glad it all worked out and it is now over. Believe me, I was so ready to throw in the towel and do something different this year but Jessica wouldn't let me.

We ran into building scheduling conflicts - made worse with the closing of our Stake Center for renovations which just made our building unattainable. Not to mention the various Stake activities that were popping up everywhere.

We went with the Luau theme this year. The menu: pulled pork, rice, salad, chop suey and fresh fruit. It was delicious! Angie even provided fresh pineapple from Hawaii!

We had the regular fundraising activities; the dinner, cake auction, silent auction and bake sale. We wanted to add a little entertainment as well so we had the girls learn a Polynesian dance to perform for everyone. They did great and had a fun time at it!

There were some cake auction highlights too.

At one point we had someone on their cell phone bidding for a friend who had to work - it was for a very desired chocolate cake with Reese's Peanut Butter cups on it.

Then the bidding was on for an Apple Crumble cake made by Brian Barker..to be made fresh when wanted served up with vanilla ice cream. Chris started bidding and Aaron kept countering. As they were reaching $75, I was about to have a heart attack! Once it went over $100, I looked at him with such pleading eyes and asked him to please stop bidding....got some laughs on that one. At $105, Chris yells at Aaron, "Are you serious?" And Aaron just said,"It's good cake!" At that point Aaron suggested that they split it and that we will share the cake when it is made. PHEW! Hey, I know it was for a good cause - but don't overstress the pregnant lady!

A big thanks goes out to everyone who supported the young women. We raised enough for all of them to attend Wilderness camp this year!

Happy Mother's Day!

This Mother's Day was wonderful for me! First, we were in Cedar over the weekend so the girls and I were able to go to Sacrament meeting with my parents. Victoria & Christianna were a bit sad that they would not be singing with their Primary back home. Mom talked with the Primary Song leader there and the girls were able to sing with their Primary! It was so sweet. Each child was given a pretty rose to hold while they sang and then they each gave them to their Mothers when they were done. Victoria gave hers to Mom...such a sweetheart!

After Sacrament, we headed home. My goal was to be home in time for dinner. We actually beat Chris home from church. He was so cute! He had this huge smile on his face and said,"I just can't wait!" He then opened the microwave to show me his masterpiece.

He then critiqued his work - but I thought it was fantastic! He even made the frosting for it - which was no small task since he had to find the recipe first and it turns out that it was not labeled as to what it was. It was just a scrap of paper with the ingredient list...not instructions as to what you do with them! So typical of me!! ha ha

I really didn't take a bite out of it....

...but I did accidentally get frosting on me.

Not sure were Victoria was and I am kinda sad that she wasn't in the picture!

All in all, we had a good dinner and dessert and I was able to spend it with my family.

What more could I ask for?

Skate Party

The girl's pediatric Dentist office has yearly parties for their patients. For the first time in the years we have been going there, we were actually able to attend one. It was so much fun and it was fantastic that we could all actually go! It was down at Classic Skating in Sandy.

The first thing we did was hit the bounce house area. The girls were getting so worn out - it was GREAT!

Right after Christianna went over this, she immediately fell out of sight!

This one was fun. Chris even had to try it out. There was a timer so you could race someone through the maze.

We then had a little family pow wow to decide what to do next...

...the vote was to skate!

Chris isn't much into skating but I personally love it. I first let the girls just go out by themselves. Victoria remembered it pretty well, but Christianna was struggling a bit. So I did what any mom would do and got skates too so I could go around with her for awhile.

I was a little weary of falling and needing assistance to get my butt up off the floor. But I survived and DIDN"T fall at all.

Christianna soon got the knack of it and then I could sit and relax with my love...who happens to look like he is in pain or crying. He wasn't - remember, he was having a good time.

After skating for awhile, we headed to our final destination: The Blast Zone.

Pretty much, you collect little foam balls and shoot them at anything that moves. Good times!

There was a huge slide in there too. You can kinda see Christianna (toward the top in pink), Victoria (just below her sister), and Chris (by the target sign). They all climbed up to go down together as our big finale to our fun day.

I thought it was super adorable!

Ready....set....

...GO!!!

We are looking forward to the next party for sure!