Name that baby.

Can you tell who this is? My Mom's computer is set to cycle through her pictures for the screen saver and this picture popped up. I was surprised to see how much Marriner looks like Chels when she was a baby. I swear they are the same child, except Chels was a lot happier. I think she was a couple months older then he is right now in this picture though. We didn't come to my parent's house until Jake was deployed after Christmas so she was at least 4 months old here. Sometime in the middle of the night when I'm feeding Mister I have flashbacks of feeding Chels since their looks are so similar. Maybe I'm hallucinating from the sleep deprivation, or maybe I'm going crazy but I seriously always call Marriner a "her" or a "she" in the middle of the night, hehe.

First Snow!

I bought this shirt when I first found out Marriner was going to be a boy and now he finally fits into it, yay!
Chels usually has to take a picture by herself whenever I get the camera out. This was the one she took of the baby.
On Saturday morning it snowed! I woke up to feed Marriner at about 5:00 and then while he was laying on the floor I dosed back to sleep. Then Jake got up to go to work at 7:00 and woke me up so I could look outside. I was so surprised to see snow!!!

Chels LOVED it! She was begging me to go outside from the minute she looked out the window. When we finally bundled her up as well as we could (we have no snow clothes for any of us!) she ran right outside and scooped up a big handful. She shockingly exclaimed "It's COLD!" haha. This was the first time she had ever played in snow. She's seen it before but only during those early fall snowstorms while we were visiting. There has never been enough to actully go play in. I don't think she had any clue that snow was cold and wet. She still had fun though after the initial shock wore off. She played until her litte nose was running and her hands hurt. Then we made her come inside. She was right back at it later in the afternoon though!

Halloween 2009 & 2 month shots

Little Marriner went to his 2 month check up yesterday. And let's just say...it didn't go well! True to our little man's form, he was MAD! From the moment I layed him on the table to take off his clothes he cried and cried. And not that cute little newborn cry, he screamed! The nurse and the Dr. didn't know quite what to think of him. All they said were things like "colicky babies are hard" and "his face gets really red when he cries" or my favorite "he has quite a temper" haha, that's my guy! He weighed 10 lbs and 11 oz so that put him in the 25th percentile for weight. He was in between the 25 and 50th percentile for height at 22 1/2 inches and his head was in the 50th percentile (big surprise, my kids have big heads!). Then it came time for shots, watch out!!! He was sooo mad. And I felt like an awful mother because I had to rush off to work right afterwards so I left him with my mom. Chels always took her shots like a champ. She would cry during the actual pokes but by the time we would leave the Dr.'s office she was usually sleeping soundly in her carseat. Not Marriner! He has let us know that he did not like his shots ever since yesterday. He is especially fussy. Last night he woke up every 2 hours. He won't sleep or eat today. Poor little guy. I'm hoping he feels better by tomorrow! Even though he can try our patience like no other, we still love him to pieces. He finally is giving us smiles, and somehow in those seconds, it makes all the stress and crying spells worth it!

Now for Halloween. Chels was a puppy of course. Her Grandma Davies made her costume and it was so cute. She even had 3 different pairs of ears she could snap onto the hood. Marriner was nothing really. We had lots of cute ideas (Jake wanted him to be a member of the Lollipop guild from Wizard of Oz) but none of them came to pass. He did get a little Frenchman's mustache drawn on him while we were painting Chels' face though.

Bonjour!!!

Our baby boy and baby puppy.
I've been waiting for so long to actually live in Idaho and be able to celebrate holidays with our family! This is my niece Kaymn, aka the cutest little ghost ever!

Chels and Kodie playing marbleworks. My mom had a pizza party after everyone's Trunk-or-Treats so we could all see the costumes.

My sister-in-law showed all us mom's up and dressed up. This is her little girl Abby.

Chels with my brother Gary's kids. Emalee, Jake, Landon, and Megan.

Marbleworks and so much more...

First of all, my sister in law Julie is now a consultant for Discovery Toys. So if you're looking for some fun educational toys for Christmas and you're tired of buying the same old Disney Princess junk from Walmart, then this is your perfect solution!!! Go check out her website:
http://discoverytoyslink.com/julievans
Discovery Toys makes the Marbleworks toys, they have always been one of my favorites since I was little. They also have toys for infants as well as older kids.

I finally figured out how to disable the pop-up blocker on my Mom's computer, yay! These last couple weeks have been busy. My family finished sugar beet harvest yesterday, so that is a huge relief to everyone. Jake and I both got jobs this last week. Jake's job is only through December which is perfect since he's starting school in January. He will be assembling the generators in those giant windmills that they use to harvest wind energy. I got a part-time job waitressing at Winger's but I'm still looking for something full-time, hopefully with some benefits. Jake got some great news about his college credits. His associate degree will transfer so he will be finishing up a few classes and starting on his physics classes this first semester. It should take him about 3-4 years to finish the physics program, which seems forever away but so did the year 2009 when we first started in the Air Force! So anyways, things are going good. We are excited about our future!!!

My handsome boys and beautiful baby puppy all ready for church last week.

Marriner resting peacefully in his carseat.

Chels sleeping in her carseat. What can I say...the car is like a tranquilizer for my children. This was actually while she had the swine flu so she slept a LOT.

Made it to Idaho!

We finally made it to Idaho, we are officially Idahoans again and it feels wonderful. We have actually been here for about a week now. Things have been really busy between seeing family, trying to help in harvest, Jacob's fishing obsession and everything else.

Chelsea came down with something last Thursday and she just kept getting worse and worse so I took her to the Dr.'s and it turns out it was the dreaded Swine Flu, yuck! So now we have all had it, except for Marriner. I'm hoping and praying he doesn't get it since he's still so little. I'm worried that if he does come down with it they will hospitalize him because he's too young to take any medicine. So everyone keep your fingers crossed that he will hold strong!

I was going to post some pictures but my mom's computer won't allow ANY pop-ups. I've tried to disable the pop-up blocker but it's too strict. I guess her computer is just ultra-secure! But I just wanted to let everyone know we made it, and we are happy.

Busy Week!

I just wanted to start this post with a little update on Mr. Mister. He is doing a little better, yay! I think the soy formula we put him on is helping. He still cries sometimes, but only about once or twice a day now instead of after every bottle. I can feel my nerves starting to come back and I don't feel so frazzled anymore. Even when he's crying and keeping me up at night though, he is still the cutest little guy. He makes this one face that cracks me up. It's sort of a Zoolander-ish look complete with puckered lips. I have yet to capture it with the camera, but I'm trying. I am so thankful for him in our home and our life. Somedays I can't believe I have two healthy, beautiful children. I am so blessed!

Mr. in his baby Naartjie outfit, so adorable!!!
A smile that I caught while he was sleeping. We have yet to see a real, meaningful toothless smile. I can't wait!!!

Sleeping so cute.

This week was the BIG week. We packed up all our stuff on Monday and the movers came on Tuesday. I can't believe this week has finally arrived. For the past 5 years we have been waiting for Jake's enlistment to be done. The Air Force has been good for us though. I really believe that we have a stronger marriage then we would have had if we had just lived in Idaho by our family. Being apart and fending for ourselves has taught us independence. We seriously struggled with this decision when the time actually came. We had been wanting to get out of the Air Force ever since we got married but when it was time to make the final decision it was tough. It basically came down to what was most important to us and that was family. We have missed so much and we don't want to miss anything else. Another huge factor in our decision was that Jake hated going to work everyday. I didn't want him to have to hate getting up each and every day of his life. So we decided to separate. I hope it's the right move for us. Wish us luck!!!

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes. I didn't ever think we had very much stuff until we started packing it!

It was sad to leave our house, we really liked it.

It's sort of akward to have men in your house packing all your stuff. We just kind of sat there and watched and tried to stay out of the way.

This is what the baby did the whole time. My back was breaking by the end of Tuesday!

The semi they brought to load our stuff was HUGE!

And now we are settled in TLF (temporary living facility). It's so nice to be signed out of our house. That was a huge stress, and you can tell by the pimples all over my face! Chels calls it the "little house" even though it's bigger then our real house was. It's 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It's nice and we're enjoying hotel life!

Pine Canyon Fire

Wednesdays are usually pretty boring right? It's right in the middle of the week, nothing much happening. Well yesterday was certainly not boring around here! Around noon I started hearing lots of sirens, both police and fire. Chels kept telling me that someone forgot to "poof out there fire with water" (don't you just love 4 year old lingo?) and that she could smell fire. Then Jake called me and asked me if I had heard about the fire. I told him no but I'd heard sirens. He said it was pretty bad and asked me if it was smokey here and I said no. I didn't think much about it because I couldn't see any smoke and things seemed pretty calm around here.

I was standing at my kitchen sink washing dishes a little later and I could see my neighbor in the street taking pictures behind our houses. I thought this was odd so I walked out into the backyard and then I saw it. This huge billowing cloud of smoke, and it wasn't far away at all! It was so scary looking.

Jake called again a little later and told me that the fire was near the front gate, only about one mile away from our house. He told me if it started getting too smokey to go ahead and leave because he didn't want the baby breathing in a whole bunch of smoke. I told him I didn't want to go anywhere in case they evacuated housing while I was gone and then I couldn't get back to our house to get stuff. So we waited it out. The power went off and was off for the rest of the day. Airplanes and helicopters started flying over dumping water and fire retardant on the flames. It was pretty intense. I was scared that they were going to evacuate us. I didn't even know where I would go.

We went into Lompoc that evening, just me and the kids since Jake had to stay at work, to get some dinner. I was wishing I had taken my camera because while driving into town we were so incredibly close that I could see flames. The helicopters were still dumping water and the horizon had an orange glow. Then as we drove a little further I was wishing I hadn't left the house at all because it was so smokey it was difficult to breathe and I felt bad for the kids. Chels started coughing and then I felt like a horrible mother for taking her out!

The power came back on late last night and it has only gone off once more, but it was in the middle of the night. I was able to watch the news last night and they said they fire had burned 300 acres so far and it was 50% contained. I guess it was started by a snapped power line or a transformer that had blown or something. It was looking like they had it pretty much put out this morning but this afternoon I've started seeing huge clouds of smoke again and the airplanes have returned with the fire retardant. I hope it doesn't get any worse. I really don't want to evacuate my home!

Jake has been at work the whole time except for a few hours last night when he came home to sleep. I'm really stressed because I was counting on his help these last few days with getting everything ready to move. Oh well, I'll just have to make due without him.

I did manage to get a few pictures when the fire first started in the afternoon...

The scary big smoke cloud.
You can see 2 airplanes in this picture if you look closely.

A better picture of the airplane.

Just something kind of cute out of all this. Chels keeps asking me why they don't just pour water on the fire like the Care Bears. Apparently she has seen an episode of Care Bears where they put out a fire, she's so funny.

At wit's end...almost.

I have SO much to do in preparation for our move! The movers come on Monday and I have not done anything. But instead of busily getting ready I am sitting here on the couch rocking Marriner in his carseat with my foot. He likes constant movement. And this is way I'm almost at my wit's end! My baby is a stinker, he's a cute little stinker, but he's a stinker none the less! Don't get me wrong, I love him to pieces. I couldn't be happier to have a baby boy in our house, I just wish I knew what to do for him to make him happy. The poor little guy cries constantly. And it's not a little whine that you could possibly put him down and let him cry out. It's a scream! He gets all red and gets himself so worked up that he has even quit breathing a couple times when I've tried the cry it out technique (only after hours of crying). We've tried swaddling, we've tried mylicon and gripe water, we have just recently switched to lactose and milk free formula, it hasn't helped yet but I'm giving it another week in hopes that it will. We bought a swing since he's such a fan of movement, but $60 later all we had was a very fancy play swing for Chels' stuffed animals. He hated it and would cry everytime we turned it on, so it got returned. I know the crying is mostly due to his tummy aches. After we feed him he immediately starts crying and if you put your ear next to his tummy you can just hear it grumbling and churning. I feel so bad for him but I don't know what to do for him.
My mom always talks about when her 2nd child was a baby and how he would cry and cry. I'm starting to think that maybe it somehow got passed on to me. If that is even possible.
I've tried to look at the good side of the situation. Marriner is definitely teaching all of us patience! I mean how can you really be mad at a baby? So we are forced to be patient with him. Even Chels gets usually gets frazzled by the end of the day but we are trying to teach her patience as well. Another good thing about him crying is that I don't get to eat much which has made me lose weight more quickly then I would have otherwise. I'm still not skinny by any means but I only have about 10 lbs to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. And that's all I've come up with, two good sides of his crying.
I get so jealous when I look at other babies whether in person or on blogs. I know I'm not seeing them at their worst but they seem so happy. I just wish we had a happy little guy, I wish I knew how to make him happy.
I know he'll grow out of it eventually, and that I'll hardly remember these days. I still love him so much. We haven't been able to get a smile out of him yet but I'm excited for that day.
I'm just hoping and praying that somehow all of the things I need to do in the next week will get done and that everything will work out. Wish me luck!!!

Mister Mister

Out of all this name confusion, a nickname has imerged. Somewhere along the way I started calling him Mister and it sort of stuck. Chels even calls him that sometimes. So that is what I end up calling him 90% of the time. It's cute and it fits him. It goes with most things I say to him like "Why are you crying Mister?" or "Oh Mister, what's wrong???" and even "Mister! You have a stinky bum!!!" Jake uses it too. Maybe it's our way of avoiding the name subject! Mister is definitely better then the nickname Jake gave him...Poo-nuts...I think you can imagine the diaper changing incident where this nickname came from!

Football pose again, this time in his swing.

Jake likes to sit him up and see how long it takes him to fall.

First full Sunday at church. We even combed his hair in the missionary combover.
After church. This was Chels' birthday dress but she wouldn't let me take a picture of it. It had little Scottie puppies on the bottom. Puppies...what a surprise!

Chels actually holding still and smiling for the camera.

Chelsea's 4th Birthday!

Chels turned 4 yesterday. We had been telling her that her birthday was coming for so long that I think she stopped believing us. But yesterday morning when she came into my bedroom the first thing she said was "Is it my birthday today?" I told her yes and she got a huge smile on her face. She's been telling me all day today that she is 4 now. We didn't do anything big for her special day but I hope she still had fun. We are planning to do a birthday party for her when we get to Idaho in 3 weeks. Then we can invite her cousins and fun will be had by all!

To start off her birthday we took her to get her immunizations. I know we are mean, cruel parents. These are the shots she will need to start school so we decided to just get them done as soon as possible and while we still have health insurance. I figured her birthday was a good day to take her because then I could bring her home and we could give her the presents and she'd forget all about the shots, and my plan worked! I think she was actually proud of her war wounds by the end of the day. Getting her into the clinic was a joke though. She watched some cartoon a few weeks ago where they talked about getting shots and so she was scared to death. I had to literally carry her kicking and screaming into the building. I also had to hold her down for all 4 shots. She is one strong little 4 year old! It definitely gave me a work out. I felt bad for inflicting this sort of fear and pain on my little girl but I know it's for her own good.

Chels showing off her band-aids.

Opening her presents. She had wished for a blue puppy, this is what I found. It's a baby toy but oh well!
Her Grandma Davies sent her tons of fun stuff to draw with and color with and paint with, hours of fun!

She also got a doggy purse which she has been carrying around ever since she opened it.

This is the kind of ugly cake that results from taking your child to the store and letting her pick out her own cake. She woke up on her birthday telling me she had a birthday dream and in this dream she had a balloon cake. Well guess what happened to be at Foodco, a balloon cake! She was so happy!!!

She also HAD to have the "Happy Birthday" candles.

Then she tasted the cake and wasn't so happy anymore. She hated it, haha, oh well. I think she was expecting that uber sugary frosting that comes from store bought cakes. This frosting was actually just cool whip, which was fine with me! I hate that store bought frosting!

After cake and presents and all the celebrating. Doesn't Marriner looked thrilled, haha. My lips are stained from that frosting.

At the end of the day I think she enjoyed herself, I hope she did. We let her make all the decisions for our little party and for most of the day. We went and ate lunch with Papa at his work, which is one of her most favorite things to do. We went to the playground in the afternoon and Jake took her to get an Icee after he got off work. We also let her eat way too many sweets. But that's what birthdays are for, right?!?!

Some everday stuff...

This past week has flown by! Actually both weeks since the baby was born have flown by. I'm hoping the time continues to go by quickly until we move. Our move date is now only 3 weeks and 4 days away, I can't believe it! It's crazy to think back to 6 years ago when 2009 seemed an eternity away and when I thought the day that we got out of the Air Force would never come. It's bittersweet really. We have had a good life being part of the military. They have taken care of us and now it's time to go out into the real world, but I think we're up for the task. It will be very exciting!!!

Since the baby was born there has been so much confusion surrounding his name. I know a lot of people go by their middle names but I don't know how they pull it off! Everywhere we go (Dr.'s appointments, military processing) they call him Dean since that is his first name. This makes Jake happy because he wants the baby to go by Dean. I ,on the otherhand, would rather call him Marriner. Just because my Dad's name is Dean and it is a little strange to call my son my father's name. But I'm starting to reconsider, it would be so much easier to just call him Dean since that is actually his first given name. If you have an opinion on whether our baby should go by Dean or Marriner, go ahead and leave it in a comment, I want to hear other views on this issue!

Our life has sure changed since this little guy blessed us with his presence. I told Jake yesterday that I miss sleep, and it's so true. I do miss it, but I know this is only temporary and that it's worth it. Little DM gets horrible gas pains and we've been frantically trying everything. Bouncing him, swaddling him, rubbing his belly, Gripe Water, Dr. Brown bottles. Nothing is getting rid of his pains completely but I think it's better then it was a few days ago. I just feel bad for him. A little more then 2 weeks ago he was still in my belly perfectly content and happy. But then he got pushed out into the world and now he has to adjust and he can't even tell us what's hurting him or how to help him. It's just so sad. I'm just praying for patience to help him through it all.

We had his circumcision today. Jake stayed home with Chels and I took him by myself. It was so sad. He cried and cried through the whole thing. He also kept peeing on the Doctor, oops! Now I just hope it heals well and quickly! He was 8 lbs and 21 inches already. I can't believe he's already that big.

Now for picture overload...

I took this picture the day before my induction. I was so HUGE!

This is Chels as a baby, I can't remember how old she was here, maybe 6 weeks.

Another picture of Chels, just to compare their looks. I think they do look a little different from each other.

Baby and Papa, they kind of have the same look on their face!

This is his "feed me" face. He purses his lips and looks all around for something to eat!

This is a common pose for DM, Jake says it's his touchdown pose.

This outit makes me giggle, doesn't he look like he's straight out of the 70's?!?!

Baby and Mama.

Big sister giving kisses. Baby looks like he loves it, haha.

Marriner's Blessing

We hurried and blessed Marriner this past weekend since my Mom is leaving to go back to Idaho this Sunday. We were nervous to take him to church so we just went for Sacrament Meeting and then headed home, no use taking chances with the Swine Flu! The blessing went really well. Jake did an amazing job. I can't ever remember hearing such a beautiful blessing before, and I'm not being biased. He was so nervous but he did great. I know other people thought the blessing was beautiful too because when I got up to bear my testimony right after I saw a few people crying. We came home after Sacrament Meeting and had a big Sunday dinner. It was so nice to have a member of our family here for the blessing.

Our first family picture. Marriner is even kind of smiling.
All the men who stood in the circle with Jake.

Marriner and Mama.

Marriner and Papa.

Grandma with Chels and Marriner.

Marriner in his blessing outfit from One Small Child and his blue afgan that his Great Grandma Landon made him.

Cute little argyle socks I found to match his blessing outfit.

More Pictures

I have been trying to take lots of pictures. Everytime I think to myself "He looks so cute" I try to remember to grab the camera. Here are some pics from the last couple days.

Waving "Hello" to everyone.
Big sister giving a cheeser smile.
He's ready for his close up.

Chels and Papa dancing.

Just chillin'.

So cute.

THE Story.

I need to write this out before I forget!!!

We got to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center at 8:00 am on Friday Sept. 28 for my social induction. We decided to induce since I live so far from the hospital. Also because my Dr. is awesome and understood about when my mom could be here and how we needed to get baby here as soon as possible since we're moving soon.

It was a very hot day already and the forcast was calling for record highs. I met my nurse, Jillian, and got changed into my gown. The nurse got us all settled and told us to hang out for a little while until she got directions from Dr. Goodrich. I got to eat breakfast and watch some TV before she came back in and told us that the Dr. told her to check me and then we'd see where to go from there. She checked and I was only dilated about 3 cm, which was disappointing. Dr. Goodrich told her to start me on Pitocin.

The nurse tried to put in my IV and my veins weren't cooperating, she said they were rolling around. She got a good vein on the second poke though and I started to get my Pitocin. The nurse came back every half hour to up the dose. For some strange reason I actually started having less contractions then I was having when I had first arrived. She kept upping my dose and nothing was happening. This went on for hours, and Jake and I were both getting very frusterated. We started to wonder if maybe we were trying to push him out too early and maybe he just didn't want to come out yet.

My Dr. came in at about 3:30 which surprised me since she had told me she wasn't working the weekend. She checked me and told me I was only dialated to a 4. She gave me 2 options at that point. She told us we could go home and wait a few days and then we'd try again or she could break my water. If she broke my water then we'd have a time limit. We'd basically have about 12 hours to get him out before they'd have to give me a c-section. I thought about going home still pregnant, coming back another day and getting the IV again...that didn't sound like fun. So I told her to go ahead and break my water. She did so and then she left.

I called my mom and gave her an update. Then I went to the bathroom and while I was in there I had my first STRONG contraction. I thought "Wow, that was weird" but I didn't think much about it. Well by the time I was able to get back to my bed I had had a couple more and they hurt! I had started getting Pitocin at 10:00 and they had been upping my dose every half hour. By this point it was 4:00 so I was getting a pretty high dose and it was making my contractions really intense. And I could tell!

Jake was on the phone with his Dad and I told him, jokingly, that I wanted my epidural now, looking back I realize that I really should have gotten it at that point. I waited about another half hour to an hour. I don't really know what I was waiting for, it's not like the pain was going to get any better, but I had said before that I wanted to try to do it naturally if I could so I was trying to be strong. At that point the pain was really unbearable though. I was having contractions exactly every 2 minutes.

I called my nurse and she could tell the second she walked in since every time she had walked into my room up to that point I had been all smiles. This time I was in tears and she asked me what I wanted to do. I told her to call the anesthisiologist. It took him about 45 mintues to get there and get all set up. By this point I thought I was going to die, seriously. I don't know how people have children naturally.

The anesthisiologist was really nice, he was trying to hurry for my sake but he could only go so fast. He poked me and tried to get the catheter in but it just wouldn't go. He played around with it for what seemed like forever. All this time I was contracting and it was so painful. I was literally dripping with sweat which made his job even harder because his little plastic wrap wouldn't stick to my back. He kept asking me if it felt like he was off to the left or right, he just couldn't get it in. So he pulled the needle out and told me he was going to try in a different spot. I was a little surprised because I thought an epidural had to be in a very specific one spot. He put it up a lot higher, almost to my bra strap line. I tried to hold so still because I didn't want to have to get poked again, and he got it in.

They started the medicince and he stayed in the room with me for a while to make sure it started working. Well it did, as much as it could. I still didn't get that awesome epidural that everyone always describes, where they couldn't feel a thing. I could still feel a lot of pain in my butt, which is weird. The anesthisiologist told me that if they baby was on my pelvic bone though that there wasn't much they could do about it, there wasn't any way he could manage that pain.

The epidural did definitely take the edge off though. I got the little button, and they told me I could push it to administer more medicine every 10 minutes. After they put in my catheter I could feel that so I was pushing it every 10 minutes on the dot. Well the stupid machine got mad at me and an alarm went off. I was mad, why did they tell me I could push it every 10 minutes if I couldn't? After that the machine locked and it didn't give me any more medicine for an hour, ugh.

After I got the epidural and got all settled the nurse checked me again and I was dialted 7-8 cm. I had dialated from a 4 to a 7-8 during all that pain, so at least it wasn't for nothing. I can't remember exactly but I think that was at about 6:30 or 7:00.

The pain kept getting worse and worse and then I started to feel the pressure. I called my nurse, who was a new girl by this point, Natalie. I told her I felt like I needed to push so she checked me and I was at a 9. She left and came back with the exciting stuff like the bassinet and the light for the Dr. The scissors and clamp for the cord. I knew it was getting close but I had a hard time feeling happy because I was in lots of pain. She checked me again after she got everything set up and I was very close to a 10, she said I just had a little flap left. I told her I didn't know how many more contractions I could hold back pushing so she went to get the Dr.

By the time my Dr. came in I was ready, the little flap was gone. Now the fun part, haha. I ended up pushing for about 40 minutes. I kept asking Jake if he could see his head, because I remember him telling me he could see Chels' head and it wasn't long after that that she came out. He kept having to tell me no which was hard to hear but I kept pushing. Finally I could feel him crowing and then there was no stopping me. Dr. Goodrich kept telling me "If you aren't feeling a contraction just rest and wait until the next one" but I was determined at that point.

Dean Marriner was born at 8:29 pm. He came out crying and white. They set him on my chest and I tried really hard to pay attention to what was happening since I didn't with Chels. I was so exhausted by the time Chels came out that I just collapsed. He cried for a long time, really loudly. He just kept crying and crying. It was the most pathetic, but the cutest cry I had ever heard. Jake cut his cord. They cleaned him up and weighed him. I thought he looked smaller then Chels had been but he was 6 oz bigger. He weighed in at 7 lb 5 oz and he was 20 in. tall.

We stayed in the room for a while they did all his checks. I got all stitched up and was able to rest a little. Jake left to go get us some dinner since we were both starving. When he came back they were ready to move me down a floor to the mother and baby unit. They packed up all our stuff and started moving us down. On the way my nurse told me, "We're going to a private room on floor 2" well when we got there the curtain was drawn and I could see another bassinet on the other side. I asked "Is there someone over there?" and the nurse just said "Yes, I'm sooo sorry, I thought you were getting a private room." Apparently everyone in a 50 mile radius of San Luis Obispo decided to have their babies last weekend and the hospital was packed. I had to share a room...grrr. It was Germany all over again. I was pretty upset. I didn't eat my dinner and they were telling Jake he could only stay for a few minutes. I was so mad, I was all pumped for him to get to stay with me and help me but they made him leave. There was nothing we could do about it.

That first night wasn't so bad. The nurse actually came and got the baby for a couple hours and I slept, it was nice. My roomate was a royal witch though. She was so mean to her husband and children when they came to visit. She had nothing good to say about anyone when her mom got there and they just sat there and gossiped the whole time. Why do I always get these weird roomates?!?!

The next day we couldn't decide what to do. I didn't know when they were letting me go home so we didn't know whether Jake should bring my mom and Chels that day or wait until Sunday. We decided to get them a hotel room in SLO and they came up with him. Well when they got to the hospital the on-call Dr. finally came to check on me and he cleared me to go home that day. So we didn't end up using the hotel and I got to go home less then 24 hours after I had the baby.

All in all it went pretty fast, if you don't count the time where nothing was happening. After the broke my water is only took 4 1/2 hours to get him here. It was so painful though, I was really hoping that it wouldn't be as painful as Chels' but it was, it was just shorter. I told Jake, "No more kids" but I guess we'll see. My recovery has been 100x better then with Chels. I'm getting around so much better and I'm not as sore as I was with her (I think it's because his head his smaller then her's was). My mom and Jake are being wonderful and I'm just getting to relax. I had two people at the grocery store ask me "When the baby is due" yesterday, so I guess I still look pregnant, oh well! Give me a couple weeks people!!!

Chels is being so good, she's very soft with him and she wants to hold him about 1000 times a day, but she only holds him for about 3 seconds, haha. Overall she's pretty indifferent about him, which I suspected she would be. We took her to the store with us yesterday and we were almost done and leaving before she said "Where's the baby?" (he was at home with my mom).

So far Marriner is doing great. We've had 2 tough nights and 1 good one. We love him so much, he is the cutest little guy I've ever seen. We have his first Dr.'s appt. today and then we should be able to get the referral for his circumcision, which will be so sad. We've taken some more pics that I will post soon, I need to remember to take lots more pictures then I have been taking though.

Thanks for all the well wishes and thoughts and prayers, I have the best family and friends!

Dean Marriner Davies has arrived!

Dean Marriner Davies was born on August 28 at 8:30 pm. He weighed 7 lbs and 5 oz and was 20 inches long. He is doing well, and so am I. I will post more of the "story" later. Here are some pictures.

Not so happy at this point :(

Our Dr. with the baby right after he was born.

Proud Papa.
The morning after, everyone was much happier!

Big sister.

First time in the carseat, he did really good.

Friday is our day!

We went to our last OB appt today, what a great feeling that was! Our Dr. came in and we started talking about an induction date. She told us that she is taking the weekend off because she has been on call the last 3 weekends, so she needs a break! So we decided on Monday. She went out to call the hospital to reserve me a bed, but when she came back she told us that the hospital is full until Thursday. Hmmm...that would have meant that my mom would be here for a whole week before anything even happened (unlesss I go into labor on my own). We told the Dr. we'd really like to go sooner if at all possible. So she gave us two other options, we could try to go to the other hospital on Monday or we could go into the hospital we had chosen on Friday, but she wouldn't be able to deliver us. She went out to call the other hospital to see if they were also full and while she was gone we discussed it and decided to go ahead with Friday. Just because I would really like Jacob to be able to stay with me at the hospital during the weekend and not have to go to work the next day after I deliver. And because it was at the hospital of our choice. And because it's 3 days earlier :). So when the Dr. came back in we told her our choice. I couldn't really tell how she felt about this, she seemed kind of upset that we would choose to deliver on a day when she couldn't be there, but oh well, that was our decision. She'll still be able to induce me and get things started, but unless I have the baby by noon, she won't be delivering me. But I'm OK with this since I also never met my Dr. that delivered Chels until I was in labor. A Dr. is a Dr. right? So that's the plan, we go in on Friday at 8 am. Wish me luck!!!

I've had many inqueries about what names we are thinking about. And to be honest, we haven't decided for sure yet. We know what his last name will be, hehe, and we know his first name will be Dean. We also know his middle name will start with an M. The reason for this is because my Dad and Jacob's Grandfather are both named Dean M. We thought that was a pretty big coincidence and since we love both of these men dearly we thought naming the baby after them would be a good tribute. But, we still haven't decided on a middle name. Depending on what we decide on the baby might go by his middle name, instead of his first name Dean. So it could be a very important middle name. We just can't agree on anything though. So I guess we'll all soon know what we decide. I'm hoping once I see him something will feel right, like it did with Chels. If not, then I guess I'm screwed!

My Dad.

Jacob's Grandpa.

Anniversary Gifts

Why do couples always buy presents for each other even when you've both decided not to buy presents? It's one of those mysteries of the universe. I decided to get Jake something small and insignificant, but something that would let him know I at least thought of him during the day. I had a hard time coming up with something so I went to the old standby of making him a candy poster. So after standing in the candy aisle for forever and (I'm sure) making the cashier giggle to herself because this fat pregnant lady was buying a basket full of candy, this is what I came up with (you can click on the pic to make it bigger if you want to read what it says).

(We really do sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to each other, haha)

Well after I had made the poster and I was all giddy and waiting for Jake to get home I got a delivery. Such a cute little bouquet! I have been hinting to no end about an Edible Arrangement while I'm in the hospital after we have the baby so he said he tried to get me one of those but they don't deliver here, stupid company. But I was glad after he showed me the website, those things are so expensive! I couldn't believe it, it's just fruit!!! So the flowers will do just fine, I love them and I'm already trying to think of something to do with the vase after the flowers are gone, it's such a cool vase!

5 years and counting!

It seems like everyone's anniversary is in August! Well today it is our turn. We were married on Friday the 13th in 2004, it has been 5 crazy years! Here's what we were doing on, or around our anniversary for the last 5 years.

August 13, 2004. We were married in the Idaho Falls Temple. It was a hot and loooong day. But it was amazing. Exactly one week later we moved to Germany.

August 13, 2005. We went to Paris for our 1 year anniversary. I was ENORMOUSLY pregnant with Chelsea but it was still a trip we will never forget. It was so awesome to see the sites of the most romantic city in the world! This picture is in front of Notre Dom. One short month later we were parents!

August 2006. Jacob had recently returned from Afghanistan and it felt like we were newlyweds again. We were just so infatuated with each other! We went to the Bavarian Alps for 5 days and had a wonderful time. This will always be remembered as our favorite vacation spot. We had so much fun!!! I hope we can go back someday. We also went to Amsterdam around August 2006 but I couldn't find any pictures at the moment. This picture is in front of the lodge we stayed at in the Alps. Nevermind my hair, I had a bad run-in with a German hairstylist...

August 2007. We were in Idaho for our anniversary this year which was great! We had a free babysitter!!! If I remember correctly we went to dinner somewhere. Jacob bought me a beautiful 3 stone diamond neclace that year because he had always promised that he would on our 3rd anniversary. Isn't he sweet?

August 2008. We were home in CA for our anniversary last year. I was getting ready to leave for Idaho in a couple days and I had a scary Dr.'s appointment on the 15th so everything was a bit crazy. But everything turned out OK and I left for Idaho on the 17th...or the 19th...I don't really remember.

This year we are in CA again. We had an OB appointment today and then went to lunch. It was fun. We are planning a real date tomorrow night. Call me crazy but I didn't feel like taking any vacations this year to celebrate.

All in all it has been a whirlwind of a ride so far. I wouldn't trade our first 5 years for ANYTHING. It has been so great to live in a couple different places and to look back and realize how strong our marriage and relationship have become. I am so blessed in my life, I don't know what I ever did to deserve all this, but I am very grateful. Who knows what the next 5 years will bring, but I'm ready for it and I know I can handle anything that comes our way as long as I still have the best husband in the world!

A project...

I finally did something with all those amazing pictures I'm always having Kayla shoot. Well, some of them at least. I put them in this frame but since I thought a picture in every square would get to look too busy I broke it up a little with some scrapbook-ish embellishments. I love having the little bits of blue in it, it really makes it pop on our wall. My good husband hung it up for me even though we have less then 2 months left in our house. This isn't the greatest picture of the collage though, for some reason it turned out a little blurry, but you get the idea! I might still replace some of the squares. I just had to get it done and hung up so I can stare at it everyday and get inspiration from it :)

Just a little update.

I had my 35 week appointment today. I had the Strep B swab so I asked my Dr. if she could just check me while she was there (totally forgot how bad it hurts to be checked). She said I am dialated a 1 or 2, I am 50% effaced, baby is at a -2 station, and he weighs about 5 to 5 1/2 lbs. So all in all things are looking good to deliver in 3-4 weeks. I know I have a long ways to go but hey, I'm closer then I've ever been! My mom is planning to buy her tickets today, that is one reason I wanted to be checked. Just to make sure baby isn't huge and I'm already dialated to a 4 or something. I just hope everything goes at least a little according to plan and my mom makes it here before Baby D does! Now I have graduated to Dr. appointments every week. I swear that hour long drive gets longer and longer everytime we make it!

I always wonder what people think when they look at me, now I guess I know, hehe.

Our Baby Shower

Our Baby Shower was on Tuesday, and it was really fun. I have to admit, I was really looking forward to it. I mean you only get one, maybe two baby showers in your whole life right? So anyways, it was pretty cloudy and the marine layer was really thick at first (as you can see in the first picture) but the sun soon came out and it was a beautiful day. And I, of course, got sunburned to a crisp. I'm still feeling the pain today. My lucky little one Chels isn't even pink though, ugh. She is a blessed child, she never sunburns!

***Disclaimer: I am looking huge a swollen these days. Don't judge me! Only about 5 more weeks now.

My table with some of my friends.

Our Bishop's wife was so thoughtful and brought a little present for Chels. She was delighted!

Opening presents. I told them all I didn't want to sit next to Shannon, because she's still so skinny and she's due 3 weeks before me, but they made us :(

Me with Shannon (in red) and Ellowyn, our amazing friend who hosted the Shower and put everything together.

The diaper cakes that Ellowyn made us, so cute!

Me and Shannon after the festivities.

All in all it was so much fun and I'm so thankful to everyone who came and all the gifts we recieved. I'm starting to get a little sad to leave CA and all the friends I've made. It's all part of life though. I'm just trying to look forward to the next part of our journey.

33 wks

My friend here in Lompoc is throwing me, and another friend who is due 3 weeks before me, a baby shower. I just had to share the invite because it's so cute! The girls on the card actually look like me and Shannon, hehe, adorable!
We went out to dinner this weekend and while we were out the marine layer came inland and it got really cold, really fast. Chels thought she was going to freeze to death so we put her in the only jacket in our car. She looked like such a raggamuffin!

And my belly today at 33 weeks. I'm starting to get the not-so-welcome comments like "you look like you're going to explode" or "there is no way you're going to make it another 7 weeks!!!!" and "you are SO full of baby" (all actual comments I've recieved). There's just not much room to store a baby on a 5' 3" frame people! But, to be fair, I don't blame them. I am HUGE and it's just so unbelievable that I still have 7 weeks and that there is only one baby in there. I am now officially the same size, belly circumference wise, as I was right before I had Chels. I have also now gained the same amount of weight as I did with Chels so I'm hoping not to gain much more. I wasn't going to take anymore belly shots but I figured there will definitely be pictures taken at my baby shower, so I might as well. Just ignore my hair, it all natural today!

Bella Bella Bella Dancerella

This is extremely rare at my house! Only once in a very little while will Chels ask me to put her "princess" dress on her and she will do something completely girly. So, of course, I HAD to catch it on camera. When your days are filled with a 3 year old pretending to be a puppy, dancing to Bella Bella Dancerella is the highlight of the week!

(My favorite part is when she picks her wedgie, haha)

Short Cut

My poor daughter!

If you know me, you know that I get the haircutting bug once in a while. Well now I have someone else to satisfy my craving! I've had the haircutting bug for a couple weeks now but for some reason I did NOT want to cut my own hair, so I went to the next best thing, Chels. I sat her down in the tub yesterday and chopped away. I didn't tell Jake what I was doing so when we took him lunch he was pretty shocked. I'll admit I got it a little shorter then I meant to, oops (I didn't factor in her curls so when it dried it just kept get shorter and shorter). I'm still not sure how I feel about it, it makes her look so much different and that's not what I intended. Jake likes it though, I thought he'd be mad but he thinks she looks cute. I already like it more today then I did yesterday, so just give me a couple more days and I'll be used to it. Here's a couple shots of her new do!

Front view, with a sweet little smile which I was lucky to catch.

Back view, although it looks a little funny because she wasn't sitting up straight, and my fatty reflection, ugh.