Pictures of the last 2 weeks

Roger and Moana.

Aubrey, Sophie, McKay and Devin.

McKay and Devin, Moana and Ada, Roger and Aubrey.

Samuel and Roger.

Samuel during the reunion.

Jim and Jon during the pinewood derby.

Ada , Jer, and I at the zoo.

Aubrey, Devin, Ada at the zoo.

Sharon, Ada, McKay and Aubrey at the aquarium

Janelle and Aubrey at the aquarium

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Devin, Ada, and Aubrey

Pictures of Bear Lake

Camping at Bear Lake, Ada and Jer

Ada sleeping is one of the best sights... when I'm tired at least!

Napping with Grandpa Wilcox

Samuel and Jer napping

funny story for the week

One thing that happened that wasn't funny at the time was one of the times that I tried to go jogging during the reunion. I started to get ready to run on the treadmill so that I could be there for the kids while Jer went on his run. I got dressed and got my shoes on, then I found that Ada and Grace had unloaded all of Jim and Judy's nice books out of their bookcase... So Becca and I got them put away and I took the kids to where they could play. I went to stretch and then the baby got hungry, so I got him a bottle and Becca fed him while I finished stretching. I went to check on the girls and found a puddle of something wet and sticky on the play table with all the books and puzzles and the girls were jumping on the bed holding markers and crayons...(the markers were all missing their caps). By the time I got all that straightened out the baby was crying again and didn't want me to put him down... When Jer got home from his run I handed him the kids and said, "See ya later." It was a little ironic that it took me a hour and a half to get started on a run that lasted me just under an hour. Oh well...

Latest update...

Wow... I'm so glad that the last weeks are over now. They were a lot of fun but they were so busy that the kids were grumpy half the time and I was tired the rest of the time. My brother McKay and his family came out to visit from Georgia for the week. They got here Monday two weeks ago... we had a barbeque and let the kids play. The next day we hung out at Mom and Dads for most the day... from then on was where it got crazy... it was our wedding anniversary so my parents took the kids while we went to do some stuff. We went to see the movie Up and I absolutely loved it! I think it's the best Pixar yet, we went to Cold Stone for ice cream and went to the bookstore to read and we bought a couple of new books, and we went out to eat at the Macaroni Grill. Wed we went to the Oquirrh Temple openhouse. It was very beautiful, and the kids thought that the baptismal font was pretty neat. Then we went from there to the Draper aquarium. That was so fun! Ada started showing me how fish swim and my favorite was the octopus... it kept going up and down the tank... it was neat. Ada liked the frogs and the stingray petting area. Thursday we went to the Hogle Zoo. That was fun too. It was perfect weather... not too hot and sunny and it started raining right as we got in the car to go home. Ada's favorites were the cheetah and the giraffes. She kind of liked the camels too. It was funny too... as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot, she was out like a light! Then we went to a coupon class at Amy's house. That night was the beginning of Jer's weekend family reunion. From Thursday til Monday we ate food galore, made and raced pinewood derby cars, played games, watched movies, had a chocolate tasting party, a talent show, etc... as well as trying to keep up with our work, callings, adn Jer even finished the slide for our stairs. We watched the fireworks from Jim and Judy's roof and set off a few of our own. Ada thought they were pretty cool, especially the sparklers. We had Tuesday to rest and clean the house, then Wed we went out to visit Ada's best friend that moved not to long ago... I started teaching piano lessons again... Thursday I went shoe shopping and did some catch up on stuff while my parents took Ada up to Bear Lake. Then Jer and I followed them up on Friday so that we could be there for my family reunion on Saturday. Jer, Ada and Samuel all caught a cold, but Ada had fun digging in the dirt and Jer had a good run, even though he said that it was one of the hardest ones that he's done. I jogged 2 miles with him before he went 14 more. It was fun to catch up with aunts and cousins. Then we drove home with a grumpy toddler and a sunburned husband. It was funny though... because Ada kept asking to see trains on the way home... usually we see maybe one... but this time we saw 5.

All in all it was a ball!

Another picture post...

I just needed to put up a couple of my new favorite pictures from the last month... here they are.

We've lucked out... so far

This one is of Ada playing with Samuel's toes... she thinks it's just fabulous that they both have toes...

This is our sweet baby Samuel at three weeks old...

I was so scared that after having Ada... who slept through the night from 3 months on and only woke up once a night before that... who's not a picky eater and was generally a happy and curious baby as long as we didn't try to make her breastfeed... that we'd have a hellion for our next child. Imagine my relief that he's a sweet boy that likes to cuddle and sleeps from 12:30am til 7:30am on most nights... at only 3 weeks old. The only thing that I've been frustrated about that has to do with him... is that he has gas every couple of hours... he fusses and cries until all the gas is gone... then he's fine again. I'm so glad that the Lord knew that I wouldn't be able to handle a very challenging newborn right now. When he's two I might wish to send him back... but as it is now... we're happy to have him as part of our family!

Water

Samuel likes warm water... every time I shower with him or bathe him in a warm tub he just relaxes and almost falls asleep... not to mention that he pees anytime I first put him in the tub... (just means that I need to make sure that he's pointing in the right direction... otherwise we're in trouble.)

"Good Girl"

I think Ada likes our dog, Lucy. When we give the dog a treat or go play with her we always tell her, "Good girl!" when she does what we say. Ada has starting telling people what to do and then calling them a good girl if they do it... two examples... Grandma was sharing a bowl of ice cream with Ada. When Ada asked for more and Grandma gave it to her Ada looked at Grandma and said,"Good girl!" The other example is that for dinner time Ada wanted to sit in Jeremy's chair at the table. I told her not to and she turned to daddy and told him to sit there instead... when he finally did sit there a couple minutes later she looked at him and said, "Good girl!"

I guess it's something else...

So I think my body's going crazy. I don't know how it would handle any more pregnancies... but we'll see. I've just been feeling not quite right even though my body has healed and I thought I was over the Baby blues feeling. But I guess a lot of what I've been feeling doesn't really have anything to do with giving birth anyway... surprise to me!

We're switching insurances, so I wanted to make sure that I had everything taken care of before then... My foot has been bothering me for about two months, I've had a constant headache for the last week, and my teeth have been hurting... all things that I can contribute to having a baby, not sleeping as much, and having all the calcium sucked out of your body... I went to the doctor's to just make sure... and it turns out that I've had a sinus infection for about a week, and their X-ray machine was broken, but they said that I either broke a bone in my foot or keep re-twisting my ankle. I've been taking the medicine to get rid of the sinus infection and I'm a lot less hormonal and emotional... I've still got a headache, but the doctor told me to start taking a decongestant, and I haven't done that yet. And I'm taking an anti-inflammatory for my foot, and I can actually walk around without it hurting... I even went jogging yesterday. But the anti-inflammatory makes me tired and my hemorrhoids have gotten worse... I hope that my body will just realize that it needs to heal so that I can stop having all these stupid side effects.

Baby Blues

I'm having a little bit of the baby blues today I think... I just feel like sitting and doing nothing and resent that I have to do laundry, wait for Jer to get back, do the dishes and take care of a toddler... It's really not much... but I didn't expect to feel like this almost two weeks after Samuel being born. But I think I'll be much better when Jer gets home. He somehow manages to fix a lot of things as long as he know what's going on.

On a brighter note, Ada is still her curious and funny self... and it's really fun to see how she's starting to get along with Samuel... every time he cries she says, "ah-oh! Baby!" And she's been so patient... I haven't been keeping her busy like I usually do, but she's been a good sport. Today I found her laying on her bed with her baby doll and staring at the glow in the dark stars that we put on her ceiling. She's still a toddler and likes to get into trouble... but she's doing well. (The other day I found her dipping my calculator in the toilet and dripping toilet water all over my bathroom floor.)

Samuel Parker

I know... everyone already knows about my baby... but I feel like I need to get a record of the birth... even if it's just for me.

We went to the hospital to be induced on June 5th at 7am. They started me on Pitosin and I was a little scared that my epidural wouldn't work again. My anesthesiologist told me that it was probably because my tail bone had broken years ago and I might have scar tissue that made my last epidural not work from the waist down... I got one anyways hoping that it would work. He was very careful putting it in and doing all the tests to make sure that it was working. So far so good... but then the baby's heart rate kept going down any time I had a strong contraction... my mom (who was also my wonderful nurse) said that her and the doctor thought that he might have the cord wrapped around his neck. They had to slow down the Pitosin until the baby was more stable. I wasn't dilating either... but I didn't dilate very quickly with Ada either so that wasn't a surprise for me. When I was only a 5 by 7pm... everyone was feeling rather sorry for me... I was doing fine... a little nauseous, but fine. I made a joke that Sam was jealous of his big sister... she was born on 10/10... and that he wanted to be born on 6/6. I told Jer that would help him remember our kids birthdays... but we all thought that I would have the baby soon. When I hadn't by 11pm, my doctor took a closer look at my cervix because all my contractions were strong... I was dilated, but not in a circle... it was more like a flat heart shape so the baby couldn't come out. He stretched me out a little bit and 2 and 1/2 hours later my body was finally ready to have the baby. They got me ready to push... and again... I was scared to death because I had to push for 1 1/2 hours with Ada... I started contracting, they had me push and there was the baby... That was a big surprise for me! They got the cord unwrapped from his neck, stitched me up (which I didn't mind this time because my epidural really did work all the way! YAY!) and they laid him on my chest. I was glad to see him safely here and I am very grateful for doctors, nurses and all those involved for all their patience and expertise. My doctor didn't rush for a C-Section just so he could go home and go to bed... my mom worked a 21 hour shift so that she could support me in my labor... and a great anesthesiologist that knows what he's doing. Yes it was a 16 1/2 hour labor, but it was much better and easier than the 28 hours I spent trying to get Ada here!

He's beautiful, looks like Jer and is a very calm and sweet baby. He had to spend a couple of days in the NICU... he had a low blood sugar, an infection, and was jaundiced. He absolutely LOVED the lights that they put him under... any time they took him out from under them he'd get mad. He doesn't want to breastfeed, but neither did Ada... so that's not a huge surprise either. Everyone has made this first week so easy for me... from taking over at my job, providing meals, entertaining Ada, and helping with house work... (Ada's was another story... When I got home on Monday... she'd lost both sets of shoes, eaten something that made her break out into a rash that she's still on medication for, and had lost her daily routine... she's in love with her brother though... she gives him hugs, helps change his diaper and loves to play with his toes.) They've all been amazing and I love being a mom!